A decade after a Morehouse College student beat another student with a baseball bat because he believed the other young man was gay, the all-male historically black Atlanta campus is set to offer its first class in LGBT studies.
It was in November 2002 when Morehouse student Aaron Price viciously attacked fellow student Gregory Love with a baseball bat because he perceived Love to be gay.
Love, who said he was not gay, suffered a fractured skull and nearly died; Price was sentenced to 10 years in prison. Price had his sentence reduced to seven years in 2006 after a Fulton County judge deemed 10 years behind bars too harsh.
Dr. Beverly Daniel Tatum, president of Spelman College, jump-started the Audre Lorde Historically Black Colleges & Universities Summit with a compelling bit of trivia.
“As we celebrate our 130th anniversary and founding by two women who lived, themselves, in life-long partnership, it seems appropriate that [Spelman] should be a leader in creating more inclusive environments for our LGBT students,” Tatum said.
That public acknowledgement that Sophia Packard and Harriett Giles, co-organizers of the acclaimed all women’s college, lived as domestic partners set the stage to explore the complex relationships LGBT people share in both attending and working for historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs).
Fast forward in time and it is clear how highly publicized incidents like the 2002 beating of a Morehouse student allegedly motivated by homophobia, combined with greater media attention surrounding suicide-related deaths among LGBT youth, have sparked much needed dialogue regarding issues of gender and sexuality at HBCU campuses.