Isaac Humphrey Snowden (1826-1869) was born into an activist family; his father was a minister in the African Methodist Episcopal Church in Boston, and four of his seven siblings were abolitionists and social reformers. Prior to attending Harvard Medical School, and then for two years after, Snowden studied under Dr. Henry Clarke of Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston. In November 1853, Snowden reapplied to Harvard Medical School under the auspices of the American Colonization Society. Snowden approached students for support, and seventy-five out of a class of 118 students supported his readmission with a petition. Despite overwhelming support from the student body, the faculty denied Snowden admission. According to the annual report of the Colonization Society, Snowden left for Liberia in 1854 with Daniel Laing, Jr.