ATLANTA, GA – Morehouse College has announced that its president of five years, Dr. Robert M. Franklin, will step down from his position at the end of the 2012 academic year.

During a sabbatical from Morehouse, Franklin will serve as Scholar in Residence at Stanford University’s Martin Luther King Jr. Institute. Upon his return, he will transition to the roles of President Emeritus and Distinguished Professor, the college’s highest honor.

Chairman of the Morehouse College Board of Trustees, Robert Davidson, extols Franklin’s commitment to service and his dedication to empowering the young men of Morehouse.

Franklin, a 1975 graduate of the prestigious all male school in Atlanta, Georgia, will also travel the world to further a conversation introduced in his book, Crisis in the Village: Restoring Hope in African American Communities, by examining the conditions of boys and men around the globe.