When Joshua Bass ’27, Editor-in-Chief of The Maroon Tiger, graduates from Morehouse College with a journalism degree in May, he will have an advantage over many of his peers entering the job market. His resume is stellar. He’s interviewed legendary athletes most student journalists only read about, from Olympic Gold Medalist Edwin Moses ’78 to NFL great Colin Kaepernick.
Thanks to generous investment in classroom innovation in journalism at Morehouse, Bass has been trained to excel as a writer, a broadcaster, and a content creator across digital platforms in a major program launched in 2022 and empowered by a curriculum crafted by professional journalists. The Journalism in Sports, Culture, and Social Justice department provides students with access to industry insight and the tools and technology found in global newsrooms.
They graduate well-prepared.
Nearly 120 journalism program alumni at Morehouse currently work in media and sports careers; more than 60 graduates have advanced degrees in the field.
“I am an Emmy Award-winning journalist because of this place,” said Bass. “Morehouse has given me space to grow, to ask questions, to make mistakes, and to find my voice. I am deeply thankful for the professors who have poured into me, challenged me, believed in me, and opened the doors that I once could only imagine walking through.”
Fueling Innovation with Investment
Journalism at Morehouse has been supported by three transformative $1 million donations, including $1 million raised and contributed by Academy Award-winning filmmaker Spike Lee ’79, who in 2007 planted the first seeds of the College’s journalism program with the late Ralph Wiley, one of the first Black sports columnists to work at a major daily newspaper. The effort received another $1 million boost in 2015 from Charles Barkley, a Turner Sports basketball analyst and NBA Hall of Famer. Its latest $1 million gift came in 2021 from Michael Jordan and the Jordan Brand.
The Michael Jordan and the Jordan Brand contribution, part of the Black Community Commitment, funded 35 scholarships for Jordan Scholars at Morehouse and provided vital resources for academic programming and professional development for students studying journalism and sports-related fields. It even paid for some of the equipment and training that Bass used to prepare for his Emmy Award-winning interview.
Michael Jordan and the Jordan Brand contributed an extra $200,000 in 2024 to outfit a digital media lab in the journalism department to elevate instruction.
Last week, Jordan’s representatives visited campus for the grand opening and ribbon-cutting of that digital lab, now called the Morehouse Multimedia Center. They wanted to see the fruits of their investment and meet some of the students benefiting from the gift, which is fueling opportunities for future journalists and creatives of color and giving them a dynamic space to hone their skills and produce content across traditional, digital, and multimedia platforms.
Michael Jordan family representative Jon Quinn, who supports Jump Management and its philanthropic work, and Jordan Brand’s Shauncey Mashia Stelly, Senior Director Global Purpose, attended the ribbon-cutting ceremony and shook hands with the journalism department’s retired founding director Ron Thomas, an icon in sports journalism who served as an associate professor at Morehouse. The Multimedia Center program launch drew nearly 100 alumni, students, faculty and staff members, and metro Atlanta content creators.
“We’re pleased to support Morehouse College and its students as they prepare for the next chapter of their careers,” Stelly said. “We hope this space provides students with valuable opportunities to learn, create, and grow.”
Developing Diverse Media Professionals and Leaders
The state-of-the-art facility advances Morehouse’s commitment to addressing the lack of diverse leadership in newsrooms nationwide by developing a talent pipeline of reporters, editors, content creators, and media innovators for global media organizations. Nationally, only 11 percent of newsroom employees are people of color, according to the American Press Institute, while roughly 6 percent are Black. Approximately 75 percent of newsroom employees and editors are White.
"When we launched our journalism major in 2022, we envisioned a program grounded in the liberal arts where students engage the 'why' behind storytelling and social impact. The generosity of Michael Jordan and Jordan Brand made it possible to expand our curriculum and build the Morehouse Multimedia Center as the practical complement to that vision,” said Mikki Harris, Chair of the Journalism in Sports, Culture, and Social Justice department and an associate professor at Morehouse. "The Center serves as a bridge between critical thinking and professional practice for our students.
“Beyond the classroom, the Multimedia Center transforms how our faculty conduct and share research by providing multimedia tools to digitize scholarship and a digital platform that expands the reach and impact of our work to global audiences,” Harris said.
The 1,433-square-foot Morehouse Multimedia Center includes a modular production studio, editing bays, $250,000 worth of gear, an equipment room, and modern instruction space called Jordan Multimedia Innovation Lab. The Center now serves as a hub for creative productions, digital storytelling, sports broadcasting, podcasting, filmmaking, and projects developed with emerging media technologies.
Through hands-on training with industry equipment and lessons taught by award-winning content creators, the Center is helping students build industry-relevant skills as they produce powerful content featuring diverse narratives that examine social issues.
Emani Saucier '19, Inaugural Director and Co-founder of the Morehouse Multimedia Center, said the Center's robust student training and access to resources will elevate storytelling and strengthen Morehouse's role as a leader in media education and innovation. Content produced using state-of-the-art equipment purchased for the Center generated more than 1 million social media views in August 2026 alone.
"The Morehouse Multimedia Center represents our vision for preparing students not only to participate in the future of media, but to lead it," said Saucier.
Inspiring Alumni Investment
Alumni toured the creative spaces with pride, committing to join the effort and continue the department's momentum. Olympian Edwin Moses brought his classmate George “Gentleman George” Folkes, a mentor to Spike Lee and the first Morehouse Man admitted to film school. Folkes attended UCLA and later became a prominent radio personality, educator, and independent filmmaker.
“Where Morehouse is going now is something for me personally to be proud of, and to contribute to, and bring people to reveal the secrets that our students need to know to get to the top,” Folkes said. “I am ready to come back home.”
Jacobi Eaves ’09, a professional photographer, agreed. “When I was here for the first journalism class in 2007, I never would have imagined that this is what it would have led to,” he said.
With the right investment and partnerships, the journalism program could become one of the nation’s best, said Eaves, adding that alumni must join corporate partners and individual benefactors in sustaining the program.
“We must find ways to give back whenever we can,” he said.
To contribute to the journalism program, please click here.