Edward Mitchell, Class of 1828, was the first African American admitted to Dartmouth. His admission to the College, in 1824, came 40 years before any other Ivy League institution admitted an African American student.
Five other African American students matriculated before the Civil War: Thomas Paul 1841, Augustus Washington 1846, Jonathan Gibbs 1852, Edward Draper 1855, and John R. Blackburn 1863. Washington was a renowned daguerrotypist (an early form of photography) who produced one of the first images of abolitionist John Brown. Gibbs applied to 18 different colleges before being accepted at Dartmouth. Washington and Gibbs both came to Dartmouth from Kimball Union Academy, in nearby Meriden, NH.
Winfield Scott Montgomery 1878 was the first of three generations of Montgomerys to graduate from Dartmouth: his son, Wilder P. Montgomery, graduated in 1906, followed by his son, Wilder P. Montgomery Jr. in 1931. Other prominent African Americans attending Dartmouth in the 19th and early 20th centuries include Douglass Carr Griffing 1873, Robert Davis Brown 1898, Matthew Washington Bullock 1904, Ernest Everett Just 1907, and Talley Robert Holmes 1910. For more information on African Americans at Dartmouth, see the "Black Greens" website, created by Tai Antoine ’01 for the Rauner Special Collections Library.
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