William Sanders Scarborough (1852-1926) was the professional classicist of African-American descent. This volume presents the collection of Scarborough's published writings, introduced by his biographer, classicist, Michelle Ronnick.
The first professional classicist of African American descent, William Sanders Scarborough rose from slavery to become president of Wilberforce University in Ohio. Excelling at Latin and Greek, he crossed the color line both socially and intellectually with his entry into a field of study
commonly seen as elitist and dominated by white men. Although unknown to classicists today, Scarborough had a distinguished career in the field and held membership in many learned societies and had an active publication record. His life as an engaged intellectual, public citizen, and concerned
educator was admired and emulated by W. E. B. Du Bois.
This collection, which spans a half a century from the end of Reconstruction through the vagaries of World War I and the rise of Jim Crow, gives us window we have not had before into the challenges and ambiguities of this period. As a committed intellectual, concerned educator and loyal citizen, he
served as an ambassador to and for his race to several generations of people both in the U.S and abroad. In Scarborough's writings we have a portrait of a man whose struggle for physical and intellectual freedom can inform us all.
Ronnick's deeply researched volume will make Scarborough's writings accessible to a broad audience of classical scholars and American historians.
