Who gets to call himself a “Morehouse Man”?
This well-worn topic among graduates of Martin Luther King Jr.'s alma mater has become an issue in the 7th Congressional District race. Alumni of Morehouse College, an all-male and historically black institution, say the title is reserved for them alone and does not apply to those who matriculated at the nearby but independent Morehouse School of Medicine.
This is where Republican candidate Rich McCormick enters the fray. He earned his medical degree from the co-ed and more diverse School of Medicine and later taught courses at the college. In his most recent ad, a surrogate identifies McCormick as a “Morehouse Man.”
Several alumni of the college — we imagine most of these folks are Democrats who disagree with McCormick’s politics — have cried foul. Some even went as far as emailing the campaign and requesting that he pull down the ad.
In their assumptions, McCormick is using his affiliation with the Morehouse School of Medicine to project proximity to blackness in a way that is disingenuous.
“I’m a Morehouse Man and I don’t appreciate the racial pandering encroachment,” Morehouse College alum Jeremy White wrote on Twitter.
McCormick is in a tight race against Democrat Carolyn Bourdeaux, running for a suburban Atlanta seat that has been held by Republicans but whose voters are becoming more diverse and increasingly supporting Democratic candidates. Most election prognosticators say Bourdeaux has a better chance of winning, although the results are expected to be close.
We reached out to McCormick’s campaign to get a response to the dust up, and his spokesman told us there is no legal reason that the phrase cannot be used. The ad is not coming down.
“Dr. McCormick is immensely proud to have taught at Morehouse, obtained his Medical Degree from Morehouse School of Medicine, been elected by his diverse peers as Student Body President, and to have spoken at graduation,” campaign spokesman John Simpson said. "It’s was an honor of a lifetime. He doesn’t see why he shouldn’t be able to share that honor with voters.”
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