By Melissa Noel ·Updated May 3, 2023
Yale University will honor two Black men who attended the university nearly 200 years ago with posthumous degrees.
Rev. James W.C. Pennington was born enslaved and escaped from Maryland in 1828. He was the first known Black student to attend Yale and studied at the university from 1834 to 1837. Rev. Alexander Crummell attended the institution three years later in 1840 for one year.
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