Oberlin College Admits Black Students — First Integrated US College

Oberlin College in Ohio admitted Black students beginning in 1835, becoming the first racially integrated college in the United States. By 1860 approximately one-third of Black college graduates in America had attended Oberlin. Alumni included John Mercer Langston (first Black elected official in the US), Mary Jane Patterson (first Black American woman to earn a college degree, 1862), and dozens of Underground Railroad conductors.