The New Renaissance Man: A Morehouse Manifesto

Room: Grand Ballroom

"There is considerable debate about whether there is a crisis in the education of young men, who are graduating from high school and college at a lower rate than their female classmates. But there is little doubt of the need for successfully educating young men of color. Dr. Robert M. Franklin has proposed a new definition of what success means. As the new President of Morehouse College, an all-male institution that claim Martin Luther King and countless others as distinguished alumnae, Dr. Franklin believes it is not enough to educate these young men so they can succeed economically. His goal is for each Morehouse graduate to become a renaissance man with a social conscience.

What does this mean? In his book, “Crisis in The Village: Restoring Hope in African American Communities,” Franklin says every college-educated adult who has benefited from the public’s investment in them should accept the moral obligation to provide leadership and service. But it also means that they must be become broadly educated and conversant with the classic texts and the large questions that define the disciplines in the arts and sciences. The Renaissance man or woman should interrogate the concept of classic to ensure that the canon expands to include all of the voices of great people who have been excluded from the narrow Western roster.

Furthermore, the new renaissance man and woman will recognize that a robust personal conscience is insufficient.Many people have a clear sense of right and wrong, but do little to relieve the suffering of others. They manage to live comfortably with the disparity between wealth and poverty that is all around us. A social conscience is the living voice of social justice that informs us of what is right and good and true for society, not simply individuals.Dr King called such people “transformed nonconformists” and noted that “this hour in history needs a dedicated circle of transformed nonconformists. The saving of our world from pending doom will come not from the action of a conforming majority but from the creative maladjustment of a transformed minority.”

Finally, these young people must become globalists, transcending their own parochialism. A Ghanaian proverb declares: Do not say that your mother’s stew is the best in the world if you have never left your village. I want our Renaissance men to leave our villages and to take Morehouse values of justice, peace, community and service to the farthest edge of the world. Our new renaissance men and women must travel, must learn other languages, must engage in service, and must care about the global crisis in commitment and stability."


Robert M. Franklin, President, Morehouse College

Dr. Robert Michael FranklinDr Robert Michael Franklin is the tenth president of Morehouse College, the nation’s largest private, four-year liberal arts college for men. Prior to joining Morehouse, Franklin was a Presidential Distinguished Professor of Social Ethics at Emory University, where he provided leadership for a university-wide initiative titled Confronting the Human Condition and the Human Experience, and was a senior fellow at the Center for the Study of Law and Religion at Emory’s law school. He provides commentary for the National Public Radio program, All Things Considered, and weekly commentary for Atlanta Interfaith Broadcasting Television.

Mr Franklin graduated Phi Beta Kappa from Morehouse in 1975 with a degree in Political Science and Religion. He continued his education at Harvard Divinity School, earning a Master of Divinity degree. He then earned a doctorate at the University of Chicago in Ethics and Society. He also undertook international study at the University of Durham, UK, as a 1973 English Speaking Union Scholar. His major fields of study include social ethics, psychology, and African-American religion.

An insightful educator, Mr Franklin has served on the faculties of the University of Chicago, Harvard Divinity School, Colgate-Rochester Divinity School and at Emory University's Candler School of Theology, where he gained a national reputation as director of Black Church Studies. He also has served as a program officer in Human Rights and Social Justice at the Ford Foundation, and as an adviser to the foundation’s president on future funding for religion and public life initiatives.

Franklin is the author of three books: Crisis in the Village: Restoring Hope in African American Communities, Another Day’s Journey: Black Churches Confronting the American Crisis, and Liberating Visions: Human Fulfillment and Social Justice in African American Thought.