About

Shining Light on Truth: Early Black Students at Yale is a research project dedicated to understanding and uplifting the stories of Black students who attended Yale before 1940. It is the first comprehensive effort to identify Black students in Yale’s history.

This site presents findings about all the Black students, identified to date, who attended Yale College, Sheffield Scientific School, the graduate school, and the divinity, law, medical, art, drama, and music schools. Although these men and women hailed from different corners of the globe, many had strong ties to New Haven. Active in political, religious, and community organizations across the United States and internationally, they made their mark on a diverse array of fields and professions.

The goal of this project is to nurture ongoing research into the long, rich, and varied history of Black students at Yale. We know there is more to discover, and we invite visitors to explore the site and use it as a jumping-off point for their own projects and inquiries.

Acknowledgments

The team that brought this work to life online included John Baldo, Trip Kirkpatrick ’93, and Martin Lovell (Yale Library IT); Jennifer Coggins, Mohamed Diallo ’26, Simone Felton ’25, B Laboy DIV ’26, Hope McGrath, Michael Morand ’87 DIV ’93 (Beinecke Library Community Engagement); Ken Albers and Nelson Amaya (Omeka); Kayla Shipp and Gavi Levy Haskell (Yale Digital Humanities Lab); and designer David Jon Walker ’23 MFA.  

We are grateful to colleagues in the Yale University Library—including the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, University Archives, Lillian Goldman Law Library, Divinity Library, and Medical Historical Library —and at other repositories around the world who aided in the research process and in locating and scanning images.

This project builds on the work of generations of memory-keepers, past and present, including Daryl Keith Daniels, Ronald Mickens, Moses Moore, Curtis Patton, Marion L. Phillips, Judith Schiff, Yolanda Smith, and Charles Warner, Jr. We are indebted to archivists, family members, church and community organizations, scholars, alumni registrars, and others who have preserved documents, photographs, and stories.  

Much work for this project began as part of the Yale and Slavery Research Project and in preparation for Shining Light on Truth: New Haven, Yale, and Slavery, an exhibition at the New Haven Museum from February 2024 to March 2025. Many individuals have stewarded and supported this work, including colleagues and friends in the Yale University Library, the Afro-American Cultural Center, the Office of the President, the Office of the Secretary and Vice President for University Life, the New Haven Museum, the Gilder Lehrman Center for the Study of Slavery, Resistance, and Abolition at Yale, and the Yale Alumni Association and its affiliates, especially the Yale Black Alumni Association.

Contact Us

Shining Light on Truth: Early Black Students at Yale is an ongoing initiative of the community engagement team at the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, with leadership provided by Jennifer Coggins, Community Engagement Archivist, and Hope McGrath, Research Coordinator for Yale, New Haven, and Connecticut History. We will continue to add to and update this site as more information is known.  

We welcome inquiries and feedback! If you have questions or would like to share information about a Black student who attended Yale before 1940, please write to beinecke.library@yale.edu.