Two Royals Now Represent Morehouse Nationally

Morehouse College has another royal representative who was chosen nationally to share its mission of leadership and service with the community and the country’s network of HBCUs.

Jauan Durbin-Mackall, a junior sociology major from Washington, D.C. was recently named as Mister HBCU. He won the title during the 2019 Mister HBCU Kings' Leadership Conference and Competition last month at Harris-Stowe State University in St. Louis, Mo.

Durbin-Mackall is the second royal title winner that has been selected to represent Morehouse nationally this academic year. Anta Njie, Miss Maroon and White, won the National Black College Hall of Fame Pageant last fall. The pair were the first to win the national competitions on behalf of Morehouse College.

Durbin-Mackall faced more than 20 other contenders in the 15th annual Mister HBCU contest, which included a talent and oratory competition.

“I spoke about how I encourage my peers to live their best lives,” he said. “I broke down the fact that we should not sleepwalk into our destiny, but formulate a lucid dream of our reality. I am the first King from SpelHouse to ever compete in the event.”

The junior plans to pursue a master’s degree in social work upon graduation, and eventually get his law degree. He also won the title of Mr. Blue and White, which enabled him to enter the national competition in Missouri.

Durbin-MacKall is a member of the Class of 2020.

“I wanted to attend Morehouse College because I knew that if I could come to a space where there were people like me that it would push me to do my best,” he said. “It essentially has done that.”

Njie, a senior at Spelman College, won the title of National Black College Hall of Fame in September at a competition of HBCU campus queens that was held at Hyatt Regency Hotel in Atlanta.  She is a political science major and an economics and journalism minor from Chicago. She plans to become a journalist.

“My goal every time that I have ever gotten in front of a camera is to tell the truth, not a story, and to make viewers aware of the truth no matter how compromising,” Njie has said. “I hope to be a key political and social news correspondent for major news networks like CNN, MSNBC, and BET, and eventually launch a network of my own that transcends all mediums of meda, including print, video, and audio, and clings to a running theme of honesty, integrity, and inclusivity.”