Morehouse College held its 2026 commencement this weekend, and it carried more than the usual weight. The West End campus sent off 578 graduates in the first ceremony presided over by F. DuBois Bowman, the college's new president. Capital B Atlanta covered the day.
The commencement speaker was Chris Paul, the 12-time NBA All-Star, who told graduates to do the work when no one is watching and to build rooms that let other people in. Christopher Womack, chairman and CEO of Southern Company, was also recognized, and Lawrence Edward Carter Sr., founding dean of the Martin Luther King Jr. International Chapel, was honored for nearly five decades shaping the college's spiritual life.
The academic honors ran deep. Valedictorian Yamir Richmond used his moment to argue for emotional wellness alongside achievement. Co-salutatorians O'Rell William Pressley Roberts and Mario Darnell Wells both finished with 3.98 GPAs, and Aniaba Jean-Baptiste N'guessan became the sixth Rhodes Scholar in Morehouse history.
The hardest part of the ceremony was the part the college did not have to do but did anyway. Morehouse honored two students who died before graduation. Omar Cheesboro received an earned degree posthumously, and Jayden Mango's family accepted a certificate of attendance in his place. Morehouse, anchored in the Atlanta University Center just off the West End, has been doing this kind of send-off since 1867, and the loss and the brotherhood were both on the program this year.
