CARLISLE, Pa. (AP) â Dickinson College has long been proud of its Colonial-era history, one framed forever by its standing as the first college to be chartered west of the Susquehanna River, launched to ensure the expanding frontiers of the new American nation would have access to future leaders educated to the highest standards of the day.
But what about the people who â at the time of the collegeâs founding and literally for decades thereafter â didnât fit within the frames of that picture?
Specifically, the men and women of color who, for its first century, werenât invited to attend classes at the Carlisle campus, but did have roles in serving the men who founded it â sometimes as slaves â laboring for the contractors who built it, or as freedmen after the Civil War, faithfully serving in any number of background roles?