Profile America: Distinguished Graduate 

​Thursday, December 8 — Oberlin College in Ohio has a distinguished reputation among American institutions of higher learning. Its fame would be secure just for its leadership before the Civil War in coeducational instruction and in admitting black students. Oberlin added still more to its luster on this date in 1850 when it awarded the nation’s first four-year degree to an African-American woman graduate, Lucy Stanton. She headed the school’s Ladies Literary Society, and her antislavery commencement address — titled “A Plea for the Oppressed” — can be found on the Internet. There are nearly 41 million African-Americans in today’s population, and over 20 percent of those over the age of 25 have a bachelor’s degree or higher. For black women, that figure is 22.4 percent.

You can find more facts about America’s people, places and economy from the American Community Survey here.

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