Born: June 21, 1868, Augusta, GA

Education: Worcester Academy honors, 1890; Brown University honors, 1894

Died: February 20, 1936, Atlanta, GA

The first black president of Morehouse College for men, Hope immersed it in liberal arts despite philanthropic support for industrial arts. Cofounding the Commission on Interracial Cooperation (CIC, 1918), he founded the Atlanta University Center (1929) and became one of the most important black educators of the twentieth century.

Hope prioritized higher education. Deeming it essential to full freedom, he joined W. E. B. Du Bois in the Niagara Movement (1905), protesting disfranchisement and Jim Crow and advocating college training. Hope walked a tightrope. Publicly, in the NAACP and Commission on Interracial Cooperation (CIC), he fought against lynching and discrimination. But he opposed segregation by “moderating his ‘militant’ stance” to accommodate the “separate but equal” ideology of some philanthropists. He espoused interracial cooperation to equalize schools, employment, and housing, even as he advised teachers to pursue equal-salary lawsuits, which increased NAACP membership. By enabling black educators and their institutions to survive, Hope helped pave the way for the modern civil rights movement.