“THE LANGUAGE OF SIGHT: THE DAVID MCDONOGH PROJECT”

WRITTEN By Judy Tate

Dir by Kim Sykes

• CO-PRODUCED BY RICHARD KOPLIN ’64 AND RUSSELL ARDEN KOPLIN
  
   

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 1838, in New Orleans, a wealthy landowner, John McDonogh, sends two enslaved young men, David and Washington, to Lafayette College. A member of the Colonization Society, McDonogh’s plan was to have “his Black family” educated, then sent back to Africa, where they would become missionaries. Washington left for Liberia in 1842. David had other plans.

 

This performance is supported in part by the Bicentennial Academic Fund.