1856
The first mixed race student is admitted to Wheaton
The first African-American student to attend Wheaton probably did so unbeknownst to the school. In 1856-57, Mary E. Stafford of Cumberland Island, Georgia attended Wheaton. She was the daughter of a white father and an African-American mother, and seems to have been able to pass as white, since it was not known that she was of mixed race until many years after she had actually attended Wheaton.
General Files: 1856-1857: J. Ehrenhard and M. Bullard, "Stafford Plantations, Cumberland Island National Seashore, Georgia," p. 16.
