Answer: Martin Luther King Jr.

Martin Luther King Jr. attended Crozer Theological Seminary in Chester, Pennsylvania, between 1948 and 1951, when he graduated first in his class. King was then only one of eleven African American students, and it was during this time that he was introduced to the notion of pacifism, which he would later put to use as a leader of the civil rights movement. King's success at Crozer culminated with a scholarship, which he used to enroll at Boston University.

Crozer Theological Seminary was founded as a school for underprivileged youth in the 1850s by John Price Crozer (1793-1866), a carpenter and farmer who believed in education. In the 1840s he purchased an estate outside of Chester that he named "Upland," and it was here that he built his school. Unfortuanly, the school wasn't a success, and his building saw other uses, such as that of a prison hospital during the Civil War, for several years.

In his will Crozer asked that the building be converted into an educational institution, and after his death in 1866, his family proposed the idea of turning it in a seminary, which was later approved by local ministers.  Crozer Theological Seminary opened for business in 1868.

The seminary was in operation until the late 1960s when it merged with a seminary in New York. Crozer's building is now part of the campus of the Crozer Chester Medical Center.

HSP's library holds a number of works on Martin Luther King Jr.'s life and work, including Martin Luther King, Jr.: A Profile (call number E185.97.K5 M32 1984) and Martin Luther King, Jr.: The Making of a Mind (call number E185.97.K5 A79 1982). And for additional information on the Crozer Theological Seminary, see such titles as Historical sketch of Crozer Theological Seminary (call number VoD* .58 v.10) and Crozer Quarterly (call number E .217).