Martin Freeman was the second black graduate of Middlebury College (1849) and the first black president of an American college. But he left to teach at Liberia College in Monrovia, Liberia. Middlebury professor Bill Hart discusses what eventually convinced Freeman that he could only experience freedom, full citizenship, and self-determination in exile in a black republic. Part of the First Wednesdays series, a Vermont Humanities Council program hosted by Rutland Free Library in partnership with Middlebury College and the Mellon Foundation.