Some historically black colleges and universities used color tests as a way to critique candidates for admission. A person's skin tone could affect whether they were admitted to a top school. For instance, Audrey Elisa Kerr refers to colleges requiring applicants to send personal photos. Kerr mentioned how this practice took place at a popular HBCU, Howard University. Dr. Arnold relayed to Kerr a story concerning young women at Howard. Dr. Arnold had heard colorism was a factor when it came to admission to Howard. Discrimination was also practiced by fraternities and sororities, whose members self-selected others like themselves, generally those reflecting partial European ancestry. Multi-racial people who had been free before the American Civil War attempted to distinguish themselves from the mass of freedmen after the war, who appeared to be mostly of African descent and had been confined to slavery.