The first mixed race student is admitted to WheatonPosted in Articles, Campus Life, History, Media Archive, United States, Women on 2011-09-22 02:32Z by Steven |
The first mixed race student is admitted to Wheaton
Wheaton College History
Wheaton College, Newton, Massachusetts
2011-02-02
Deanna Hauck
The first African-American student to attend Wheaton probably did so unbeknownst to the school. In 1856-57, Mary E. Stafford of Cumberland Island, Georgia attended Wheaton. She was the daughter of a white father [Robert Stafford] and an African-American mother [Elizabeth Bernardey], and seems to have been able to pass as white, since it was not known that she was of mixed race until many years after she had actually attended Wheaton.
Source: General Files: 1856-1857: J. Ehrenhard and M. Bullard, “Stafford Plantations, Cumberland Island National Seashore, Georgia,” p. 16.
Also see: Robert Stafford of Cumberland Island: Growth of a Planter