Long before the “BAGC” was formally organized in 2004 by Santes Beatty ‘97, George ‘Scooter’ Brown ‘89, DeAngela Carter ‘97 and David Hopkins ‘91, Guilford College conferred its first Black graduate, Washington Rakama, in 1964. Rakama’s Kenyan countryman, Ayub Watakila, and Divinity Masters program student, Dr. Melrose Nimmo, graduated in 1965. James McCorkle and Linda Moore (Banks) followed, graduating in 1966, becoming the first African-Americans to graduate from Guilford. The graduations of these students literally established the BLACK ALUMNI OF GUILFORD COLLEGE.

Rakama and Watakila, both Quakers and soccer players enrolled at Guilford in 1962 under the Airlift Education Scholarship program that also brought Barak Obama, Sr. to Hawaii. Dr. Nimmo, a U.S. veteran and 1939 graduate of Shaw College, enrolled in 1964. McCorkle declined an academic scholarship to Morehouse College in Atlanta to attend Guilford while Moore (Banks) studied at Bennett College as part of a Saturday School for advanced high school students with Guilford religion professor Frederic Crownfield before coming to Guilford at the age of 16 in 1963, and graduated three years later.

From Society of Friends leaders, Vestal Coffin and his cousin Levi Coffin, establishing the Underground Railroad station in Guilford County in 1819 where the campus sits, to the founding of the BAGC, to over 2,100 Black alum, our stories and history are rich.

This 60th anniversary year, we are embracing our history, honoring the memory of these trailblazers in scholarship and service to our alma mater, and renewing our connections with one another.

Join us for activities throughout the year and celebrate our shared legacy.

Our stories.

Our history.

Our Guilford.

#WeareGuilford

#60Years

#BAGC