By Special to The New Tri-State Defender

The Dr. Henry Logan Starks Institute on Faith, Race & Social Justice Honors Program yielded this moment for honorees. (Photo: Tyrone P. Easley)

MTS, Dr. Henry Logan Starks & The 30th

Memphis Theological Seminary presented the 30th Annual Dr. Henry Logan Starks Scholarship & Award Celebration at the Guest House at Graceland last week (Feb. 9th).

The 2017 honorees:

โ€ข Alice Faye Duncan Thompson โ€“ The Starks Distinguished Service Award.

โ€ข Kathy Buckman Gibson โ€“ Presidentโ€™s Humanitarian Award.

โ€ข Rev. Dr. Delois Broady โ€“ Outstanding African American Alumnae.

โ€ข Rev. David Louis Adams Sr. โ€“ Outstanding African American Alumnus.

โ€ข Students Uniting Memphis (Khari A. Bowman, Cornesha J. Good, Quintin Griffin, Khamilla A. Johnson, Elton Nichols, Zoey Parker, Malik Rudd, Alexis Sledge, Taylor Williams, Moya Albert), CandleBearer Award.

โ€ข Dr. Erma L. Clanton โ€“ Legacy Award.

The Dr. Henry Logan Starks Scholarship & Award Celebration took root 30 years ago. Bishop Bettye Alston and members of Brownโ€™s Chapel AME Church established it in 1987.

The namesake is the Rev. Dr. Henry Logan Starks, a member of the seminaryโ€™s first integrated cohort of students. He later became the first African American professor at the seminary. He died on July 4, 1985.

According to Dr. Daniel J. Earheart-Brown, the seminary has awarded โ€œhundreds of thousands of dollars to more than 500 studentsโ€ through the Dr. Henry Logan Starks Scholarship Endowment Fund, which provides scholarships for full-time African-American students.