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Atlanta, GA, May 8, 2018 – Celebrated radio personality, entrepreneur and philanthropist Tom Joyner will keynote the 2018 Morris Brown College commencement ceremony. Bachelor’s degrees will be awarded to 15 graduating seniors during the ceremony scheduled Saturday, May 19, 2018, 4:00pm at Big Bethel AME Church, Atlanta.  “Our 2018 graduates are prepared to serve in a competitive workforce or pursue degrees at the graduate level,” said Dr. Stanley J. Pritchett, President“We are excited to have the legendary Tom Joyner address this class because he has committed a lifetime to the promotion of HBCU’s including raising more than $65 million dollars to keep students enrolled.” Joyner will receive an honorary Doctorate of Business degree from the college for his entrepreneurial achievements.

As host of the nationally syndicated radio program The Tom Joyner Morning Show, Joyner empowers and entertains more than 7.4 million listeners weekly covering nearly 100 stations nationwide. He has received many accolades throughout his career including the National Association of Broadcasters’ Marconi Award, Billboard’s “Best Urban Contemporary Air Personality” award, the NAACP Image Award and has been inducted into the Radio Hall of Fame. A graduate of the Tuskegee Institute, Joyner started at WRMA in Montgomery working his way through Memphis, St. Louis and Dallas, eventually landing at WJPC in Chicago. Joyner earned the nickname “The Fly Jock” in the mid-1980s while flying round-trip between Dallas and Chicago five days a week. His daily travels and attention-grabbing on-air style gained him publicity and high ratings. In 1994, The Tom Joyner Morning Show was syndicated nationally with ABC Radio Networks. He made The Tom Joyner Morning Show part of his newly created company, Reach Media, Inc. in 2003.  The company has since grown to syndicate the most dominant Urban and Inspirational programming in radio with highly interactive positioning in digital media and events as a subsidiary of Urban One.

The college will also confer an honorary Doctorate of Music degree to James Hardy Patterson. He is a composer, conductor, arranger, performer, professor of music and founder of the Clark Atlanta University Jazz Orchestra. He graduated from Clark College with a BA Degree in Music and earned a Masters of Music degree from the University of Michigan. He is an Associate Professor of Music at Clark Atlanta University and has dedicated most of his life to jazz education motivating his students to strive to perfect their musical skills. He has performed with the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, the Atlanta Pops Orchestra and with numerous noted musicians including Lionel Hampton, Dizzy Gillespie, Jon Fadis and the Cab Calloway Orchestra.  He is a member of the American Federation of Musicians, a lifetime voting member of the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences and founder and CEO of the James Hardy Patterson Foundation.

Watch the live here at Saturday, May 19, 2018, 4:00pm:

MBC Legacy Continues

Morris Brown College is a private liberal arts college founded in 1881 and offers Bachelor degrees in Business Administration, Organizational Management and General Studies with concentrations. Its legacy is rooted in being able to offer a quality education to all admitted while transforming sensitive “high risk” students into performers. The impressive group of alums includes civil rights activist Hosea Williams, Pulitzer Prize-winning author James Alan McPherson and actor Thomas Jefferson Byrd. The classes of 1958 and 1968 will take part in the program as they celebrate their 60th and 50th year reunion.  The Morris Brown College National Alumni Association Town Hall Meeting featuring speaker Bishop Reginald T. Jackson, Chairman, Morris Brown College Board of Trustees is scheduled Saturday, May 19, 2018, at 9:00am, St. Phillip A.M.E. Church, 240 Chandler Road, SE, Atlanta. At 10:00am, the Morris Brown College Board of Trustees will meet at St. Phillips AME Church.