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Early African-American Scholars in the Classics: A Photographic EssayAuthor(s): Michele Valerie RonnickSource: The Journal of Blacks in Higher Education, No. 43 (Spring, 2004), pp. 101-105Published by: The JBHE Foundation, IncStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/4133567 .

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Early African-American Scholars in the Classics: A Photographic Essay

by Michele Valerie Ronnick

HERE WAS A TIME not so long ago in the United States that the

opportunity to obtain even the most rudimentary elements of an education was denied to per- sons of African descent. After the Civil War, however, this

dynamic changed, and across the country black people began to consume with gusto the "Bread of Knowledge," to use Frederick Douglass' phrase. The educational curriculum of the day had been in place for

centuries, established long ago in Europe. It mandated a rigor- ous training in Greek and Latin, the languages of ancient Greece and Rome. As a result, at the core of a liberal arts education was a firm foundation in the classical languages.

Young black students, boys and girls alike, quickly took up the study of classical languages. As adults, a good number of them became teachers of Greek and Latin in black colleges and

high schools. This time in American history merits our closest attention for these men and women constitute the first

generation of African Ameri- cans who could select as a career path the study and teach-

ing of languages. By mastering

Greek and Latin, they were

equipped to enter into the learned discourse of the domi- nant intellectual tradition of the West and they also took their

places as professionals in the

larger community of educators here and abroad. They proved to masses of people mired in

prejudice or awash in doubt that they had the mental capac- ity to meet the educational stan- dards of the day. Against great odds these brave pioneers worked to achieve the status of

professionals. They joined the

prominent learned societies such as the American Philo-

logical Association (1869), and the Modem Language Asso- ciation (1883).

All who teach languages today be it English, Latin, Swahili, or Vietnamese are in- debted to these heroes, the first African-American classicists. Look into their faces and salute them!

Michele Valerie Ronnick is an assistant professor of the clas- sics at Wayne State University in Detroit. This photographic exhibit has appeared at several

leading colleges and universi- ties across the United States in recent months.

William Sanders Scarborough was born a slave in 1852 in Macon, Georgia. After study at Atlanta University he earned bachelor's and master's degrees at Oberlin College. His 1881 Greek textbook drew national attention. He was a member of

the American Philological Association for 44 years and presented many papers before the membership of this

organization. In 1884 he became the first black member of the Modern Language Association. Scarborough served as president of Wilberforce University from 1908 to 1920.

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Edward Wilmot Blyden

Blyden was born in the West Indies in 1832. He

was brought to the United States by the Rev. John P Knox to study theology.

But when no school would admit him because of his

race, Blyden went to Africa. He was professor of classics at Liberia College

from 1862 to 1871 and then served as the institu- tion's president. He later

embarked on a career as a diplomat. Blyden was the second black member of

the American Philological Association.

Daniel Barclay Williams

Born in Richmond, Virginia, in 1861, Williams graduated from Woodward Academy in Massachusetts in 1880. He then entered

Brown University. In 1887 he was appointed professor of ancient languages and instructor in pedagogy at Virginia Normal and

Collegiate Institute, now Virginia State University. Williams died at the age of 34.

00 Frazelia Campbell

Frazelia Campbell graduated from the Institute for Colored Youth in

Philadelphia in 1867. She then began to teach Latin, German, and Spanish at the school. She rose to become the

principal of the school's female department. When the Institute

discontinued its academic work, Campbell accepted a similar position

at Allen University in Columbia, South Carolina.

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James Monroe Gregory

Gregory was born in Lexington, Virginia, in 1849.

He studied for a time at Oberlin College in Ohio but

earned his degree from Howard University in 1872.

After teaching in the preparatory department at

Howard for several years, he was appointed professor of Latin in 1875. Gregory was the fourth black member of the American Philological

Association.

SGeorge Morton Lightfoot

Born in Culpepper, Virginia, Lightfoot earned a bachelor's degree

from Williams College in Massachusetts in 1891. In 1912 he was named professor of Latin at Howard University. With a thesis on

Roman satire, Lightfoot earned a master's degree in 1922 from the Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C. Founder of the

Howard University Classical Club, in 1930 Lightfoot set up a special celebration in honor of Virgil's 2000th birthday.

Reuben Shannon Lovinggood

In 1864 Lovinggood was born amid great hardship in Walhalla, South Carolina. He graduated with honors from Clark University in 1890. In 1895 he was called to Wiley College in Marshall, Texas, to

build up the classics program. He later served as president of Huston College in Austin and founded a classics department there in 1910.

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William Henry Crogman I

Born in 1841 in the Leeward Islands, Crogman spent his early years as a seaman. After years of self-study he earned his degree

at Atlanta University in 1873. He then became a professor of Greek at Clark University in Atlanta and served on the university

faculty for 40 years. From 1903 to 1910 he was president of Clark. He was a member of the American Philological

Association from 1898 to his death in 1931.

Richard Theodore Greener

Born in Philadelphia in 1844, Greener was educated at Oberlin College and Phillips Academy. In 1870 he received a bachelor's degree

from Harvard University, the first African American to do so. After some 10 years as a teacher and a

professor, Greener turned to a career

as a lawyer and diplomat. He was the first black member of the American Philological Association.

Wiley Lane

Born in Elizabeth City, North Carolina, in 1852, Lane was a Phi Beta Kappa graduate of Amherst College in 1879. In 1883 he was appointed professor of Greek language and literature at Howard University. He was the first black scholar to hold such a position at Howard. Full of

unrealized promise, he died suddenly in February 1885. His death was widely lamented. Among his eulogists was Frederick Douglass.

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John Wesley Gilbert

Gilbert was born in 1864 in Hephzibah, Georgia. His parents were slaves. After completing study at Paine College, Gilbert earned bachelor's and master's degrees in Greek at Brown University. His thesis was entitled, The Demes of Attica. In 1890 Gilbert went to the American School in Athens, Greece, the first black to do so. Gilbert then taught Greek at

Paine College until his death in 1923.

Lewis Baxter Moore

Born in Huntsville, Alabama, in 1866 Moore earned a bachelor's degree at Fisk University in Nashville in 1889. He went on to study for a master's

degree at Fisk. In 1896 he earned a doctorate from the University of Pennsylvania with a dissertation on The Stage in Sophocles. He taught Latin at Howard University until 1899, then joined the university's administration.

Suggestions for Further Reading on Black Scholars in the Classics

1) Becker, Trudy Harrington, "Daniel B. Williams," Clas- sical Outlook 76 (1999) 94-95.

2) Brucia, Margaret, "The African-American Poet, Jupiter Hammon: A Home-Born Slave and his Classical Name," International Journal of the Classical Tradition 7 (2002) 515- 522.

3) Cowherd, Carrie, "The Wings of Atalanta: The Classical Influences in The Souls of Black Folk," The Souls of Black Folk: One Hundred Years Later (U of Missouri, 2003) 284- 297.

4) Curtis, Nancy A., "Classics and Our African American Students," American Classical League Newsletter (Spring, 1998) 6-9.

5) De Luce, Judith, "Classics in Historically Black Colleges and Universities," American Classical League Newsletter 21 (1999) 10-12.

6) Fikes, Robert, Jr., "It Was Never Greek to Them: Black Affinity for Ancient Greek and Roman Culture," Negro Edu- cational Review 53 (2002) 3-12.

7) Fikes, Robert, Jr., "African-American Scholars of Greco- Roman Culture," Journal of Blacks in Higher Education 35 (2002) 120-124.

8) Ronnick, Michele Valerie, The First Three African Amer- ican Members of the American Philological Association (Philadelphia: American Philological Association, 2001) pam- phlet.

9) "The Latin Quotations in the Correspondence of Edward Wilmot Blyden," Negro Educational Review 46 (1994) 101- 106.

10) "A Pick Instead of Greek and Latin: The African-Amer- ican Quest for Useful Knowledge, 1880-1920," Negro Educa- tional Review 47 (1996) 60-73.

11) "Virgil's Aeneid and John Quincy Adams' Speech for the Amistad Blacks," New England Quarterly 71 (1998) 473-477.

12) "William Henry Crogman (1865-1930)," Classical Out- look 77 (2000) 67-68.

13) "Racial Ideology and the Classics in the African Amer- ican University Experience," Classical Bulletin 76 (2000) 169- 180.

14) "William Sanders Scarborough: The First African Amer- ican Member of the Modern Language Association," Publica- tions of the Modern Language Association, Special Millen- nium Edition 115 (2000) 1787-1793.

15) "John Wesley Gilbert (c.1865-1923)," Classical Outlook 78 (2001) 113-114.

16) "Wiley Lane (1852-1885)," Classical Outlook 79 (2002) 108-109.

17) "George Morton Lightfoot (1868-1947)," Classical Out- look 80 (2002) 22-23.

18) "A Look at Booker T. Washington's Attitude Toward the Study of Greek and Latin by People of African Ancestry," Negro Educational Review 53 (2002) 59-70.

19)"First Lessons in Greek [1881]: William Sanders Scar- borough's Date with Destiny," A.M.E. Church Review 118 (2002) 30-43.

20) West, William C., "Socrates as a Model of Civil Disobe- dience in the Writings of Martin Luther King, Jr.," Classical Bulletin 76 (2000) 191-200.

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