Prudence Crandall

1803 – 1890

A white Quaker teacher, Prudence Crandall reopened her Canterbury, Connecticut academy in 1833 exclusively for African American girls after enrolling one Black student prompted her white students' families to withdraw them. Connecticut responded by passing the so-called Black Law, criminalizing the education of out-of-state Black students, and Crandall was arrested and tried three times before a mob attack forced the school's closure in 1834; she is now Connecticut's official state heroine.