Eventually someone with find the truth regarding a piece of history. I am so glad to hear about corrections to my Black History. For many years Edward Bouchet has been considered the first African American to graduate from Yale College in New Haven, Connecticut. Bouchet earned a bachelor’s degree in 1874 and went on to earn a Ph.D. in physics from Yale. (Cortlandt Van Rensselaer Creed, an African American, graduated from Yale Medical School in 1857.) But now research by Rick Stattler, Americana specialist at Swann Auction Galleries in New York, has determined that Richard Henry Green was the first Black graduate of Yale College. Stattler found a reference to Green in the American Educational Annual of 1875 that stated that Green was the first Black man to earn a bachelor’s degree at Yale. He received his diploma in 1857, 27 years before Bouchet. Yale has confirmed Stattler’s findings. Green was designated a “mulatto” in the 185o census and as Black in the 1860 census. Green married a White woman and the 1870 census listed him as White. His Yale records have no racial or ethnic information, according to university officials. Green was a native of New Haven. After graduating from Yale he taught school in Milford, Connecticut. He later studied medicine at Dartmouth College. He died in 1877 at the age of 44.
Posted on: Sun, 16 Mar 2014 18:22:19 +0000