Tubyez Cropper, left, and Michael Morand, pose inside Yale's Beinecke Rare Book & Manuscript Library, Wednesday, Oct. 9, 2024, in New Haven, Conn. In 1831, a coalition of Black leaders and white abolitionists proposed the nation's first African American college in New Haven. White male landowners with the sole authority to vote, many with ties to Yale College — rejected the plans on a vote of 700-4. Morand and Cropper released a short video documentary about it. (AP Photo/Jessica Hill)