Morris Brown College emerging from bankruptcy

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• CL File/Joeff Davis??
• MORRIS BROWN: Fountain Hall once housed the office of Civil Rights pioneer and former Atlanta University professor W.E.B. DuBois. It's one of the buildings Morris Brown will retain ownership of as it emerges from Chapter 11 bankruptcy?

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? The beleaguered Morris Brown College is in the process of emerging from three years of bankruptcy and $30 million of debt, according to Anne Aaronson, the Philadelphia-based lawyer with Dilworth Paxson LLP, who has represented the historically black Atlanta college in bankruptcy court. ?

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? "The court confirmed the college's plan of reorganization on Wednesday," Aaronson told Creative Loafing via email today. "We anticipate an order being entered shortly. Afterwards we will begin making distributions and file a notice of effective date, signaling the school's emergence from the chapter 11 process."?

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? Once completed, this will bring an end an arduous process that involved proposed and rejected land deals before one was finally struck last year. Morris Brown sold 26 acres of property and buildings for approximately $14.7 million to the city's economic development arm, Invest Atlanta, and Friendship Baptist Church, one of two historic black churches sold to the city and demolished for the construction of the future Atlanta Falcons stadium.?

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? The chairman of Morris Brown's board of trustees, Bishop Preston W. Williams II, PhD, called news of the school's emergence from Chapter 11 bankruptcy "a bittersweet ending to a long and complex process," he wrote to parishioners of the African Methodist Episcopal Church's sixth district, in the letter dated March 26. "Bitter, because we had to sell property that had historical significance to many people. Sweet, because we emerge from bankruptcy fully functional and current with all of our debt obligations. Thus, as is the case with much of life, we must accept the bitter with the sweet and keep pressing forward."?

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? Today the college maintains ownership of "the Administration Building, the Griffin Hightower Classroom building and the historic Fountain Hall, on six acres of land," according to Williams. Fountain Hall, a registered national historic site, is where scholar and NAACP co-founder W.E.B. Du Bois kept an office during his time as a professor at Atlanta University. ?

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? The next step for the embattled school, whose financial woes began over a decade ago, will be retaining the accreditation it lost in 2002 due to mounting debt. While Morris Brown has remained in operation during throughout this time, its student body dwindled significantly. At the school's next annual commencement in May, 21 students are expected to graduate. ?

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? Bishop Williams was not available for additional direct comment at the time of this post. As further details emerge, we'll continue to update.?

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