Anita Hemmings Passed As White

In 1893, a Black woman named Anita Florence Hemmings passed as white to enter Vassar College, which almost certainly would have rejected her if she had disclosed her race. A few weeks before her 1897 graduation, Hemmings' white roommate shared suspicions with her father, who hired a private investigator to examine the student's family in Boston. Vassar's board met to decide Hemmings' fate, but she appealed to the college president and received her diploma. She became Vassar's first Black graduate more than 40 years before the college formally began admitting African American students.

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