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1823

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Achievement · science
Alexander Twilight First Black College Graduate in America

Alexander Lucius Twilight graduated from Middlebury College in Vermont, becoming the first known Black person to earn a college degree in the United States. He went on to become a teacher, school principal, and the first Black American elected to a state legislature (Vermont, 1836). His accomplishments demonstrated Black intellectual capacity at a time when most African Americans were denied any formal education.

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January 1823
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Key events

  1. 1823
    Alexander Twilight First Black College Graduate in America

    Alexander Lucius Twilight graduated from Middlebury College in Vermont, becoming the first known Black person to earn a college degree in the United States. He went on to become a teacher, school principal, and the first Black American elected to a state legislature (Vermont, 1836). His accomplishments demonstrated Black intellectual capacity at a time when most African Americans were denied any formal education.

  2. c. 1823
    Nathaniel Paul Leads Abyssinian Baptist Church, Advocates Emancipation Nationally

    Nathaniel Paul, pastor of the African Baptist Society in Albany, New York, delivered a landmark sermon in 1827 marking the final abolition of slavery in New York State, published widely as 'An Address Celebrating the Abolition of Slavery in New York.' He later traveled to England raising funds for Black education in Canada and became an influential transatlantic abolitionist.