Ten lives, among hundreds, who passed through McGrawville — and one whose story stands apart.
One of the earliest African American professors at a predominantly white American college. Author of The American Prejudice Against Color; survived the Phillipsville mob of 1853 and lived the rest of his life in English exile with his wife, Mary King.
Baptist abolitionist who broke with slaveholding churches, founded the American Baptist Free Mission Society, and steered the college through its earliest, hopeful years.
First African American professor at a predominantly white American college.
Stood by her engagement in the face of mob violence; lived out her life as a teacher in London.
First Black graduate of Oberlin College; later a founding faculty member of Howard University.
Land reformer, abolitionist, and one of the Secret Six who funded John Brown.
Born in Benin, enslaved in Brazil, freed in New York; wrote one of the only North American slave narratives by a Muslim-born African.
First African and Native American woman to achieve international fame as a sculptor; later resident of Rome.
Union Army surgeon and Reconstruction-era South Carolina legislator; postmaster of Charleston.
Mathematician; computed orbits for her husband Asaph Hall, who used her work to discover the moons of Mars.
Among the first Black women to receive a college-level education in America; later principal at the Institute for Colored Youth in Philadelphia.