On this day in 1855, Charlotte Forten passed the entrance examination for the Salem Normal School, one of four colleges recently established in Massachusetts to train teachers. She was the school's first black student. Eighteen months later, she would be its first black graduate. After teaching for several years in the Salem public schools, Charlotte Forten volunteered to travel to the Sea Islands off South Carolina. Here, where the Union Army was in control, ex-slaves had come seeking freedom — and education. Charlotte Forten had lived her whole life among well-educated, prosperous, northern African Americans. In South Carolina, she experienced severe culture shock, but she persevered, recognizing that the freed slaves had a burning desire, and a great need, to learn.