African Free School in New York Produces Generation of Black Leaders

The New York Manumission Society's African Free Schools — which had operated since 1787 and educated over 1,400 Black children by 1815 — produced an extraordinary generation: Henry Highland Garnet, Alexander Crummell, Ira Aldridge (who became the most celebrated Black Shakespearean actor of the 19th century), James McCune Smith (first Black American MD), and Samuel Ringgold Ward all attended. The schools were taken over by the New York Public School Society in 1834.