Homecoming at Morgan State has outgrown the campus ballroom, so this year the gala moved. The 42nd Annual Homecoming Gala, the signature evening of Morgan’s homecoming week, filled the Hall at Live! Casino & Hotel Maryland with about 1,000 alumni and raised about $429,000 for the university’s general scholarship fund, according to The Baltimore Sun’s scene column, which covered the night.
The gala was presented by Chris Blake, class of 1992, and Delores Blake, whose names sat at the top of the evening as presenting sponsors. That arrangement tells the Morgan story in miniature: the room was funded by the people the university produced.
A week that moves Baltimore’s economy
The gala is one night inside a much larger machine. Morgan’s own accounting of homecoming puts visitor spending at more than $15 million across Baltimore, with nearly $14 million in direct spending circulating through the regional economy after leakage. The football team did its part on Saturday, beating Robert Morris 28 to 27 at Hughes Stadium, and the university was showing off a campus mid-transformation, with more than $425 million in building projects underway, including a science and research complex slated for 2029 and a 600-bed residence hall opening in fall 2027.
Morgan calls itself “The National Treasure,” and it is Baltimore’s only public university carrying a high-research designation. Homecoming is where that identity turns into a room: alumni in black tie, a casino ballroom in Hanover, and a six-figure sum raised before the weekend ended.
Forty-two years in, the gala’s formula is the durable one in HBCU fundraising. Bring the graduates home, honor what the place made of them, and let the giving happen in the room where the memories live.
The Social Register’s event directory tracks the season’s galas, benefits, and society evenings. Plan your next evening there.
