NEW BRITAIN (AP) — A Connecticut university has taken the final step in its plan to name a building after its first black graduate.

The New Britain Herald reports that Connecticut's Board of Regents for Higher Education voted to name the academic building at Central Connecticut State University after Ebenezer D.C. Bassett.

The unanimous vote was met by thunderous applause.

The building on the New Britain campus is now officially named Ebenezer D.C. Bassett Social Sciences Hall.

Bassett graduated from what was then called the State Normal School in 1853. He became a teacher and principal in New Haven and Philadelphia and in 1869 was appointed ambassador to Haiti by President Ulysses S. Grant, the nation's first black diplomat.

Board member Richard Balducci said it's important to honor significant people in the country's history.

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Information from: New Britain Herald, http://www.newbritainherald.com