On a mid-August day in 1990, Uncle Johnny dropped my father and I off at New York City's Grand Central Station, where we boarded a not-quite train to Georgia.

That spring, I had graduated from Midwood High School in the Flatbush section of Brooklyn.

And now I was off to Morehouse College in Atlanta.

Morehouse is one of only 100 or so historically black colleges and universities,

and the only one that is all male.

It was founded in 1867 at the daybreak of freedom and its mission was simple to be the light for newly freed African American men who had known nothing but the darkness of

slavery their entire lives. And Morehouse has been educating African American men ever since. Morehouse sits high on a

red clay hill, just west of downtown Atlanta. Its campus isn't the prettiest. Some buildings are new,

but most of them are old. And it isn't very large, a couple of neighborhood blocks at best.

But manicured lawns and high-tech facilities are not what drew me to Morehouse.

They don't draw anyone to Morehouse.

Tradition draws people to Morehouse. The tradition of first year students arriving on campus a week before classes to learn the history of the school.

The tradition of meeting your Spellman College sister.

The tradition of playing the Negro National Anthem before basketball and football games, the tradition of

staying up late in dormitories named after African American luminaries to debate the black

past, argue about the black present, and speculate about the black future. And of course, the tradition of singing the soul-stirring college hymn,

Dear O Morehouse, whenever and wherever Morehouse men gather.

Dear O' Morehouse, dear O' Morehouse, we have pledged our lives to thee, and will ever, yea, forever, give ourselves in loyalty.

There is another tradition too, a tradition rooted in college pride, but also in the black

cultural practice of playing the dozens.

There is a saying about Morehouse graduates, one that has more than a kernel of truth.

It's that you can always tell a Morehouse, man.

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