The Next Great Morehouse Man
Rick Hart and his journey from the campaign trail to the office of a U.S senator.
In the Winter of 2019, Morehouse scholar Rick Hart was presented with the rare opportunity to work with potential presidential candidate, Joe Biden. Hart, an avid proponent of social change, quickly jumped on the opportunity. From there, Hart’s experiences have been life changing.
Roderick “Rick” Hart, a native of Baltimore Maryland, always found himself fighting for social change. When Hart enrolled at Morehouse in the Fall of 2018, he was granted the unique opportunity to be surrounded by something not seen within customary collegiate academia. Morehouse College, a historically black college in Atlanta Georgia is well known for its acceptance of black male students. So in essence, when Hart made his decision to attend Morehouse, he secured his place in something not seen within the modern world — as Morehouse is the only place in the world for black male scholars. At Morehouse, Hart found other scholars who sought the same type of social change as he.
After the presidential election, there were several U.S. Senate runoffs elections that remained in play, including the two races in the state of Georgia. Reverend Rapheal Warnock and Jon Ossof were the two Democratic candidates vying for the remaining two U.S. Senate seats. To say that these senate seats were important is a massive understatement. With Georgia turning “blue” for the first time in years, along with the fact that the last two senate seats could possibly change the majority in the senate, the magnitude of the runoff was of the utmost importance.
“We needed two seats to flip the balance of the US senate, so I joined the Warnock runoff campaign. I was hired by a friend of mine who was our Asian American Pacific Islander outreach director during the general election in Georgia for president Biden, who became the political director for Reverend Warnock. She wanted people that she trusted working the runoff because it was arguably the most important Senate race in the United States history.” Hart said
After months of campaigning, Reverend Warnock won the election. With the aforementioned win, Senator Warnock added to the storied legacy of great Morehouse Men before him.
Within his four short but extremely eventful years at Morehouse, Hart achieved almost everything he dreamed of when he first set foot on the campus during his freshman year. With his impending graduation in May 2022, Hart now has the unique opportunity to look back and analyze his time at Morehouse.
“I’m the youngest U.S. senate staffer in the country right now. Don’t close the door on things, because you’ll never know where this life will take you. Consider hearing out an opportunity or taking a risk. Packing up my entire life and going to work on a U.S. Senate runoff race, over your Christmas break of your junior year in college… It’s something that, again, I never thought I would do, but I didn’t say no. I said yes and decisions like that are some of the best decisions I’ve ever made” Hart noted.
Rick Hart has had a college experience comparable too few others his age. Hart has shown what makes Morehouse Men so revered around the world and in every field. Hart has exhibited the ability to make quick decisions on the fly and has been able to be the proponent of social change that he has always sought to be. As Hart prepares to move on from Morehouse this May, he has plans on one day becoming a litigator and hopefully one day even the President of the United States. Morehouse has produced several great men throughout the years, However, Hart has shown the signs of being one of the greatest to have ever stepped foot on Brown Street.
Miles Rajesh Arthur is Senior Communications Major Journalism Minor from Washington D.C studying at Morehouse College.
