The McDonogh Project

Produced by Richard Koplin ’64 and written by award-winning playwright Judy Tate, this world premiere celebrates the achievements of Lafayette College’s first Black graduate and the first Black eye doctor in the U.S., David McDonogh.

In 1841 New Orleans, a wealthy landowner, John McDonogh, sent two enslaved young men, David and Washington, to Lafayette College. A member of the Colonization Society, McDonogh’s plan was to educate “his Black family” and then send them back to Africa, where they would become missionaries. Washington left for Liberia in 1843. David had other plans.