According to John T. Cunningham's University in the Forest,
"The Seminary never had a color line. The Class of 1889 had two black graduates, Benjamin Franklin Wheeler, who came to Drew after graduation from Lincoln University, and William Robert Palmer, who had won A.B. and M.A. degrees from Howard University before matriculating at the Seminary. Palmer later had a particularly distinguished career, including the presidency of Central Alabama College from 1904 to 1909." (p.106-7)