{"id":225550,"date":"2025-02-20T07:30:00","date_gmt":"2025-02-20T12:30:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/?p=225550"},"modified":"2025-02-20T09:00:14","modified_gmt":"2025-02-20T14:00:14","slug":"uconn-firsts-the-first-black-student","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/2025\/02\/uconn-firsts-the-first-black-student\/","title":{"rendered":"UConn Firsts: The First Black Student"},"content":{"rendered":"\r\n<div class=\"wp-block-group has-global-padding is-layout-constrained wp-block-group-is-layout-constrained\">\r\n<div class=\"wp-block-columns is-layout-flex wp-container-core-columns-is-layout-28f84493 wp-block-columns-is-layout-flex\">\r\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\" style=\"flex-basis: 20%\">\r\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large is-resized\"><img decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"999\" class=\"wp-image-218299 img-responsive lazyload\" style=\"--smush-placeholder-width: 1024px; --smush-placeholder-aspect-ratio: 1024\/999;width: 150px\" data-src=\"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2028\/09\/uconnfirsts-1024x999.png\" alt=\"UConn Firsts\" data-srcset=\"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2028\/09\/uconnfirsts-1024x999.png 1024w, https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2028\/09\/uconnfirsts-300x293.png 300w, https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2028\/09\/uconnfirsts-768x749.png 768w, https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2028\/09\/uconnfirsts-1536x1499.png 1536w, https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2028\/09\/uconnfirsts-2048x1998.png 2048w, https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2028\/09\/uconnfirsts-430x420.png 430w, https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2028\/09\/uconnfirsts-682x665.png 682w\" data-sizes=\"(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" src=\"data:image\/svg+xml;base64,PHN2ZyB3aWR0aD0iMSIgaGVpZ2h0PSIxIiB4bWxucz0iaHR0cDovL3d3dy53My5vcmcvMjAwMC9zdmciPjwvc3ZnPg==\" \/><\/figure>\r\n<\/div>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\" style=\"flex-basis: 80%\">\r\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In 1914, Alan Thacker Busby quietly made history when he became the first Black student to enroll at the school that today is the University of Connecticut, becoming its first Black graduate four years later. Busby was an honors student, editor of the student newspaper, football player, and founder of a debate club. Busby worked throughout his time at UConn, milking dairy cows and cutting ice from campus ponds in those pre-refrigeration days. After earning his degree, he served in the Army in the final months of World War I, before going on to earn a graduate degree at Cornell University and becoming a professor of animal husbandry, first at Alcorn State University, and then at Lincoln University. He was named an Outstanding Alumnus by UConn in 1969, and in 1990 he returned to his alma mater at the age of 94 to serve as grand marshal in that year\u2019s Homecoming. In 2006, the Board of Trustees renamed the former Charter Oak Suites residence hall in Busby\u2019s honor.<\/p>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image alignfull size-large\"><img decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"98\" class=\"wp-image-218295 img-responsive lazyload\" data-src=\"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2028\/09\/grid-1024x98.png\" alt=\"decorative abstract grid pattern\" data-srcset=\"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2028\/09\/grid-1024x98.png 1024w, https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2028\/09\/grid-300x29.png 300w, https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2028\/09\/grid-768x73.png 768w, https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2028\/09\/grid-1536x147.png 1536w, https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2028\/09\/grid-2048x196.png 2048w, https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2028\/09\/grid-630x60.png 630w, https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2028\/09\/grid-1300x124.png 1300w\" data-sizes=\"(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" src=\"data:image\/svg+xml;base64,PHN2ZyB3aWR0aD0iMSIgaGVpZ2h0PSIxIiB4bWxucz0iaHR0cDovL3d3dy53My5vcmcvMjAwMC9zdmciPjwvc3ZnPg==\" style=\"--smush-placeholder-width: 1024px; --smush-placeholder-aspect-ratio: 1024\/98;\" \/><\/figure>\r\n<\/div>\r\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In 1914, Alan Thacker Busby quietly made history when he became the first Black student to enroll at the school that today is the University of Connecticut<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":68,"featured_media":225551,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_crdt_document":"","wds_primary_category":0,"wds_primary_series":0,"wds_primary_attribution":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[147,2298,2224,2235,2633,2225,2306,2227],"tags":[],"magazine-issues":[],"coauthors":[1902],"class_list":["post-225550","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-alumni","category-animal-science","category-cahnr","category-today-homepage","category-firsts","category-uconn-storrs","category-uconn-voices","category-uconn-edu-homepage"],"pp_statuses_selecting_workflow":false,"pp_workflow_action":"current","pp_status_selection":"publish","acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-04-25 20:52:50","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/225550","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/users\/68"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=225550"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/225550\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":225924,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/225550\/revisions\/225924"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/media\/225551"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=225550"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=225550"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=225550"},{"taxonomy":"magazine-issue","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/magazine-issues?post=225550"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=225550"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}