George Gavin Ritchie, (1820-1853) editor of the first student newspaper at Madison University (now Colgate University), was expelled for publishing his editorial, “Equal Suffrage and the Religious Press,” criticizing the voters and churches of New York State for not supporting equal suffrage for black men in the election of 1846. The faculty of Madison University not only expelled him from the seminary –thwarting his efforts to obtain his degree in his chosen field as a minister of the Baptist church – but made every effort to deny him any legitimate role in the church in New York State. He found “every college door in the land locked and bolted and barred” against him, making it impossible for him to enter another seminary or to be ordained.

Artwork by Joe Flores