Morehouse College to Welcome 12-Time, NBA All-Star Chris Paul as Commencement Speaker
Paul to obtain honorary diploma alongside Chris Womack, CEO of Southern Company, and the Rev. Dr. Lawrence Edward Carter Sr., the College’s retiring founding dean of the Martin Luther King Jr. International Chapel.
Morehouse College will welcome 12-time NBA All-Star, two-time Olympian, philanthropist, and entrepreneur Chris Paul as his keynote speaker for the 142nd Morehouse College Commencement workout routines on Sunday, May 17, 2026, at 9 am on the College’s Century Campus. Paul may also obtain an honorary doctorate of humane letters from the establishment, alongside two exemplary people whose lives replicate a legacy of stewardship, moral management, public service, and societal affect: the chairman, president, and CEO of Southern Company Chris Womackand the founding dean of the Martin Luther King Jr. International Chapel, the Rev. Dr. Lawrence Edward Carter Sr.set to retire this summer time after 47 years of consecutive service to the College.
“It is a profound honor and privilege to speak at Morehouse College’s Commencement this year,” says Paul. “I have a deep respect for Morehouse’s legacy and impact on our community, especially on generations of young Black men. To follow in the footsteps of previous speakers who were presidents, civil activists, and learned shows that greatness is not defined solely by performance, but by character, consistency, and commitment to one’s community. My hope is to encourage the Class of 2026 to carry these principles forward as they enter the next chapter of their lives.”
Paul’s speech will culminate every week of undergraduate and alumni reunion occasions, celebrating the category of 2026, as properly as milestone alumni anniversariestogether with Khalil “DJ Khalil” Abdul-Rahman ’96Grammy Award-winning music producer; Milton Little Jr. ’76president of the United Way of Greater Atlanta; Stephen Reed ’96main of Montgomery; Albert Sanders ’01government vp on the National Basketball Association; Rashaun Williams ’01serial entrepreneur, investor and decide on ABC’s Shark Tank; and Raphael Warnock ’91US senator for Georgia and senior pastor of Ebenezer Baptist Church.
Honorary diploma recipient Chris Womackchairman, president, and CEO of Southern Company, one of many nation’s largest power suppliers, serving 9 million clients throughout the United States, joined the group in 1988. One of solely 9 African American Fortune 500 CEOs within the United States, Womack rose by way of the ranks to turn into the primary African American chief government officer of Georgia Power. Womack has lived the cost to be “to begin withservants of all” and that has lived that out by way of his group and civic engagement, main Atlanta Mayor Andre Dickens’ activity drive on homelessness and chairing the East Lake Foundation, amongst a myriad of different civic and group management roles. Most lately, Womack was named to the Georgia Historical Society’s “The Georgia Trustees,” the best honor the State of Georgia can confer.
Under his management, Southern Company launched a $50 million HBCU initiative that gives scholarships, management improvement, and expanded expertise entry to college students throughout six states. Womack’s management additionally extends to the way forward for power. He championed the completion of the Vogtle nuclear enlargement, the nation’s largest clear power generator, and has superior hydrogen gas mix expertise. He was additionally named to the inaugural ForbesBLK 50 listing and acknowledged by the Atlanta Business Chronicle as one in every of its Most Admired CEOs and a Leader in Corporate Citizenship.
Recruited to Morehouse by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. himself as a 10-year-old, the Rev. Dr. Lawrence Edward Carter Sr. will lastly turn into a “Morehouse Man” with the conferral of his honorary diploma after 47 years of regular service to the College by way of its Martin Luther King Jr. International Chapel. With the mission of “healing the broken body of Christ,” Dean Carter has served the College since 1979, and below his visionary management, the Chapel has developed right into a hub for non secular reflection, interfaith engagement, and moral management, the place greater than 1,000 Morehouse non secular and spiritual leaders obtained their ecumenical foundations, and few extra thousand interfaith leaders and world luminaries from internationally have stood inside its partitions, together with Nelson Mandela, Bishop Desmond Tutu, Cheikh Anta Diop, Rev. Jesse Jackson, Rev. Al Sharpton, Rev. Dr. Gardener Taylor, Bishop Mariann Edgar Budde, and numerous others. Dean Carter has established a number of enduring applications and initiatives, together with the Chapel Assistants Program, the International Hall of Honor, the College of Ministers and Laity, and the Gandhi King Ikeda Institute for Global Ethics and Reconciliation. His legacy displays a lifelong dedication to fostering goal, ethical management, and cross-cultural understanding.
This 12 months’s Baccalaureate speaker, the Reverend Dr. Winford Kennadean “Kenny” Rice Jr.is a 2014 Phi Beta Kappa, magna cum laude graduate of Morehouse College, the place he earned his Bachelor of Arts in Religion & Philosophy as the division’s top-ranking scholar and was named the 2013–2014 Martin Luther King Jr. Scholar. He went on to earn a Master of Divinity as a Ministry Fellow at Harvard University’s Divinity School, a Master of Theology from Emory University’s Candler School of Theology, and a Doctor of Ministry in biblical hermeneutics from Candler in 2025. In 2017, he was inducted into the Martin Luther King Jr. College of Pastoral Leadership at Morehouse College for his dedication to bridging civil societies, political establishments, and spiritual communities. Reverend Rice at the moment serves as Senior Pastor of Beulah Baptist Church within the Historic Vine City neighborhood of Atlanta and as an Adjunct Professor of Religion at Morehouse College. Above all, he’s enthusiastic about preaching, pastoring, and other people, and seeks to bridge the church and the academy by serving within the parish with each head and coronary heart.
For graduation updates, a whole listing of occasions, and supporting info, go to morehouse.edu/commencement.
