Morehouse College Honors the Legacy of Student Activism with Sale Hall Annex Historical Marker Dedication

Morehouse College will host the Sale Hall Annex Historical Marker Dedication Ceremony to honor a pivotal moment in civil rights history that began on its campus. The event, held Thursday, October 16, 2025, at 4:00 p.m., will commemorate Sale Hall Annex as the site of the first meeting of students who organized a movement to demand an end to segregation in Atlanta.

That historic meeting took place on February 5, 1960, just days after the Greensboro, North Carolina, sit-ins. Inspired by the courage of their peers, students from Morehouse convened in Sale Hall Annex to discuss a unified response to segregation in Atlanta. Within weeks, their vision sparked the Atlanta Student Movement, uniting hundreds of students from the Atlanta University Center — including Spelman College, Clark College, Morris Brown College, Atlanta University, and the Interdenominational Theological Center.

Led by men of Morehouse and their counterparts across the consortium, these young activists helped ignite a wave of nonviolent protests that reshaped the city. Their leadership not only accelerated the desegregation of public buildings, lunch counters, restaurants, and theaters in Atlanta but also influenced the national political landscape, helping shift the Black vote toward Democratic candidate John F. Kennedy in the 1960 presidential election.

The dedication ceremony will take place outside Sale Hall Annex, located on the Morehouse College campus at 830 Westview Dr. S.W., Atlanta, GA 30314.

This historical marker stands as a lasting tribute to the courage, conviction, and leadership of the students who turned a moment of inspiration into a movement that transformed a nation.

If you would like to make a philanthropic contribution in honor of this legacy, please consider supporting the Department of Africana Studies and History.