Connecticut has a State Heroine and despite my supposedly stellar Connecticut public school education, I’d never heard of her. Prudence Crandall ran a successful academy for girls in the 1800s. After she decided to admit a student with black skin color, most parents withdrew their children. She stuck to her principles and had to close the school, but turned around and opened an academy for African-American girls. Students came from all over the Northeast. The neighbors were, to put it mildly, not happy and the students endured harassment and vandalism. Connecticut then passed the “Black Law,” disallowing out-of-state African-Americans from attending school in the state. Prudence Crandall persisted and was arrested. The resulting county and Superior Court trials and appeal resulted in the case being dismissed on a technicality. The school remained open until a violent mob descended one night, leaving Crandall with the realization that her students would not be safe. She married, closed up shop, and moved away. The Black Law was repealed in 1838 and Crandall eventually received a small pension and formal apology from the state. In 1995 she was named the State Heroine and her old schoolhouse is now the Prudence Crandall Museum.