In 1831, a group of Black leaders alongside white abolitionists made an effort to establish the first African American college in New Haven, Connecticut, aiming to create access to education during a time when it was largely unavailable due to slavery.

However, the proposal was overwhelmingly rejected by New Haven’s freemen—primarily white male landowners who held voting rights—who voted against the initiative with a staggering tally of 700 to 4. The decision led to violent backlash in the following months, adversely affecting Black residents, their homes, and the properties of supportive white allies.

Now, nearly two centuries later, city leaders in New Haven are contemplating a public apology for the injustices perpetrated by those who opposed the college’s establishment.

Local Alder Thomas Ficklin Jr., a Democrat, introduced a resolution in August, with assistance from City Historian Michael Morand. This resolution advocates for an official apology and suggests that schools in the city, along with Yale University, implement educational programs to shed light on the events of 1831. Officials are currently deliberating over the proposal and anticipate bringing it before the full Board of Alders later this fall.

Unfortunately, Ficklin was unable to see this proposal realized as he passed away unexpectedly at home on October 9 at the age of 75, just weeks following an interview regarding the proposal.

“My political ancestors were involved with this,” Ficklin expressed prior to his passing. “Now we have a chance to render our opinion not only on their actions but on how we will be evaluated in the future.”

His wife, Julia Ficklin, indicated that the resolution was among his final concerns. “I know it was very significant to him,” she shared in a phone conversation. “And one of my hopes in these last days of grieving is that someone rises to carry this forward and see it through in one form or another.”

Morand has committed to advancing Ficklin’s mission, acknowledging that the resolution will proceed to a vote.

Interest in the rejection of the Black college gained momentum two years ago when Morand and Tubyez Cropper, affiliated with Yale’s Beinecke Rare Book & Manuscript Library, released a documentary about this historical incident.

The discussion surrounding a public apology comes on the heels of Yale’s acknowledgment of its connections to slavery, which it formally apologized for in February. A study conducted by the university revealed that several of its founders and early benefactors were slave owners, and many notable figures from Yale actively opposed the establishment of the Black college.

Two years after the 1831 rejection, the state introduced what became known as the “Black Law,” prohibiting the operation of a school for out-of-state Black individuals. This law would later be referenced in the notorious Dred Scott ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court in 1857, which declared that African Americans were not permitted to be U.S. citizens, a decision subsequently overturned by constitutional amendments following the Civil War.

The 1831 events marked an influential moment in the early abolitionist movement, even if the term “abolition” was not widely adopted at the time, according to Cropper. Plans for a college dedicated to Black men were well-known nationally after an endorsement by the first Convention of the Free People of Color in Philadelphia, along with discussions in abolitionist media outlets.

“Indeed, this is a pivotal moment,” Cropper stated.

By the summer of 1831, the supporters of the Black college had laid out concrete proposals, identifying a site in New Haven, now situated where interstates 95 and 91 converge. The financial plan entailed raising $10,000 each from both white and Black supporters.

In early September, Simeon Jocelyn, a white pastor serving a Black congregation in the city, advocated for improvements to the lives of Black citizens during a church sermon. Along with William Lloyd Garrison, who published an abolitionist newspaper in Boston, he was one of the white allies endorsing the college initiative.

Following Jocelyn’s address, the city’s white mayor, Yale alumnus Dennis Kimberly, announced a meeting for the freemen to evaluate the proposal. The rejection occurred at that meeting.

Around that same period, news spread of Nat Turner’s violent uprising in Virginia, which led to the deaths of over 55 white individuals. In retaliation, many Black individuals were murdered, and Turner eventually faced execution. Researchers at Yale have suggested that this uprising may have influenced the freemen’s resistance to the college.

During that era, while slavery was still legal in Connecticut, it was not prevalent. The state would ultimately abolish slavery in 1848, making it the last state in New England to do so.

The resolutions from the freemen against the proposed school articulated that the swift emancipation of slaves in various states was a “dangerous interference” with the internal affairs of other states and should be discouraged. They argued that a Black college would jeopardize the prosperity, if not the very existence of Yale and other local educational institutions, implying it would negatively impact the city’s best interests.

After the vote, newspapers in the southern states lauded the freemen’s decision, as noted by Morand in his historical accounts of the events.

The consequences of this decision not only restricted educational opportunities for Black individuals but also conveyed a national message that upheld the existing systems of slavery and racial oppression.

A significant figure in opposing the New Haven college was David Daggett, one of Yale Law School’s founders and a former U.S. senator. Daggett also served as a judge in Connecticut and presided over a trial in 1833 that led to the conviction of Prudence Crandall. Crandall ran an educational institution for Black girls in Canterbury, challenging the state’s Black Law and later became recognized as the state heroine.

Although her conviction was eventually overturned, Crandall chose to shut down her school due to ongoing harassment faced by herself and her students, which included incidents of arson.

In 1837, Cheyney University of Pennsylvania was founded as the first Black college or university in the nation. The following year witnessed the repeal of Connecticut’s Black Law.