It’s time to submit Essays and Nominations for the 2014 Morehouse College B.R. Brazeal Award.
Nomination Deadline: March 21, 2014
Essays Due: March 28, 2014
Award Presentation Date: Alumni Day ~ Crown Forum April 10, 2014
$750 – First Place ~ $500 – Second Place ~ $250 Third Place
Topic: On February 26, 2012 Trayvon Martin, 17, was killed by George Zimmerman. On November 23, 2012 Jordan Davis, also 17, was killed by Michael Dunn. Two similar trials with two different outcomes, but both incidents demonstrate that there is an inequity in how America values the lives of young African American Men when compared to young men of other cultures.
As a Man of Morehouse what do you think Morehouse College could do to bring attention to this disparity in the valuing of the life of young African American males. And what can you do personally to bring attention to this issue? In light of these injustices, how would Dr. Brazeal compare them to the injustices and solutions from his era?
Contest Criteria and Nomination Process
The Student must:
- Be currently enrolled as a full-time student
- Be classified as a Sophomore, Junior or Senior
- Posses a minimum 2.8 GPA
- Have demonstrated traits of honesty, integrity, moral character, and genuine concern for fellow students via campus and community involvement.
Nomination Process:
- Students may be nominated by a faculty or staff member as well as by a fellow student. Nominations must be submitted in writing by the nominator by 5:00 p.m. on March 21, 2014. Send email to shelby.jackson@morehousealumni.com. Please include nominee’s email address.
- Each nominee will be notified by e-mail and asked to furnish a double-spaced paper on the essay topic a professional résumé.
- Essays are due no later than 5:00 p.m. on March 28, 2014. (Emailed essays will not be accepted.)
- Essays should be submitted to Alumni Relations, Room 103 Visitor’s Center-Plaza, 830 Westview Dr. Atlanta, GA 30314-3773
About Dr. Brazeal
Distinguished Former
Academic Dean, Department
Chair, Dean of Men, Professor, Author and Civil Rights Activist
Dr. Brailsford Reese Brazeal received his B.A. from Morehouse College, graduating with honors in 1927, then earned his M.A. in 1941 from Columbia University.
Dean Brazeal was the first official academic dean at Morehouse College, having been appointed to this position in 1928 by Dr. Benjamin E. Mays, the sixth President of Morehouse. Dean Brazeal earned his Ph.D. in 1942 from Columbia University where he became a nationally recognized authority on matters dealing with economics, labor, unionism and African-American workers.
Dr. Brazeal was active in regional and national professional and scholarly organizations, including the National Association of Collegiate Deans and Registrars, the American Economic Association and Phi Beta Kappa Society through the Delta Chapter at Columbia University.
When Martin Luther King, Jr. entered Morehouse in 1944 at the age of 15, Dr. Brazeal was his dean and mentor. Many other prominent Morehouse Men studied under Dean Brazeal’s academic leadership: Charles V. Willie, Samuel Dubois Cook, Leone Bennett, Jr., Wendell P. Whalom, Louis W. Sullivan, Otis Moss, Jr., Maynard H. Jackson, Walter E. Massey, Leroy Keith, Jr., David Satcher, and Sanford Bishop, to cite just a few. Dr. Marcellus C. Barksdale, current history professor at Morehouse, is also honored to have studied at Morehouse under the strong and steady guidance of Dean Brazeal.
Dr. Brazeal’s book The Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters was published in 1946 by Harper and Brothers. The book was a revision of his dissertation at Columbia, and his work has been widely quoted in scholarly articles and books since the 1940s. Dr. Brazeal died on April 22, 1981 at the age of 76, leaving a legacy spanning decades for Morehouse students to follow.
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