A look at early Black Yale

Mark Alden Branch ’86

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A new exhibition opened in March at the Schwarzman Center highlighting Black history at Yale and in New Haven. Building on the work of the Yale and Slavery Research Project, Shining Light on Truth: Black Lives at Yale and in New Haven includes nearly 100 images of Black students from the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, along with photos of Black staff members and others connected to the Yale community. The exhibition is up until March 2026. If you can’t make it, a companion website features a database with biographies of 244 Black students from the 1830s to the 1930s.