I watched Drumline with my family Saturday night. It's a movie about a glitzy marching band at an historically-black school in the South (a fictional school, "Atlanta A&T") and its battle with another black school (Morris Brown). It was decent (I'd give it a C+). I Googled it Sunday morning and came up with this interesting statement:
While Morris Brown is a real and prestigious college in Atlanta, there is no real Atlanta A&T. The filming was done at Clark University in Atlanta and at Morris Brown.
How prestigious is Morris Brown? I Googled some more and found this:
This website marks the united efforts of college students, administrators, alumni, and concerned individuals alike to help in the task of saving Morris Brown College. On December 9, 2002 the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools rescinded the accreditation of Morris Brown College, one of our nations' oldest historically black colleges.
I got quite a chuckle at the juxtaposition of reality against political correctness, wishful thinking, and/or sloppy research. The decline of such an old school with so much heritage is sad, but a school that loses accreditation (in an era when accreditation has been given to an incredible number--thousands?--of colleges and universities) shouldn't be called "prestigious," even if the lost of accreditation was partly the fault of financial misconduct by its administrators.
