Editing William Sanders Scarborough

{{Infobox officeholder
| honorific-prefix    = 
| name                = William S. Scarborough
| native_name         = 
| native_name_lang    = 
| honorific-suffix    = 
| image               = William Sanders Scarborough by C. M. Bell - 1903 (cropped).jpg
| image_size          = 
| alt                 = Scarborough in 1903
| caption             = Scarborough in 1903
| order               = 
| office              = [[Wilberforce University|President]] of [[Wilberforce University]]
| term_start          = 1908
| term_end            = 1920
| predecessor         = Joshua H. Jones
| successor           = John A. Gregg
 <!--Personal-->| birth_name          = William Sanders Scarborough
| birth_date          = {{Birth date|1852|2|16}}
| birth_place         = [[Macon, Georgia|Macon]], [[Georgia (U.S. state)|Georgia]], United States
| death_date          = {{Death date and age|1926|9|9|1852|2|16}}
| death_place         = United States
| resting_place       = 
| resting_place_coordinates = 
| party               = 
| otherparty          = <!--For additional political affiliations-->
| spouse              = Sarah Cordelia Bierce
| partner             = <!--For those with a domestic partner and not married-->
| relations           = 
| children            = 
| parents             = Jesse Scarborough, Frances Gwynn Scarborough
| residence           = 
| education           = Lewis High School
| alma_mater          = [[Atlanta University]] <br /> [[Oberlin College]]
| occupation          = [[professor]]
| profession          = 
| known_for           = 
| cabinet             = 
| committees          = 
| portfolio           = 
}}
'''William Sanders Scarborough''' (February 16, 1852 – September 9, 1926) was an American [[classical scholar]] and academic administrator. He is generally thought to be the first [[African American]] classical scholar. Born into slavery, Scarborough later served as president of [[Wilberforce University]] between 1908 and 1920. He wrote a popular university textbook on [[Ancient Greek|Classical Greek]] that was widely used in the 19th century.

==Early life and education==
Scarborough was born in [[Macon, Georgia]], in 1852 to Jesse and Frances Scarborough, a free railway employee, and an enslaved mother. Laws prescribed that he inherit his mother's status. His father had been freed in about 1846 but remained in Georgia to be with his mother.

Despite prohibitions against educating slaves, he was educated surreptitiously and had mastered the three R's, geography, and grammar by the age of 10. He became an apprentice shoemaker and served as the secretary of a prominent black association at an early age due to his level of education.<ref name="Simmons1887">Simmons, William J., and Henry McNeal Turner. Men of Mark: Eminent, Progressive and Rising. GM Rewell & Company, 1887. p410-418</ref><ref name="Culp1902">{{cite book|last=Culp|first=Daniel Wallace|title=Twentieth century Negro literature; or, A cyclopedia of thought on the vital topics relating to the American Negro|year=1902|publisher=J. L. Nichols & Co.|location=Atlanta|page=415|url=https://archive.org/stream/twentiethcentury00culp#page/n595/mode/1up}}</ref>

After the end of the [[American Civil War]], he was able to complete his education at [[Lewis High School (Macon, Georgia)|Lewis High School]] in Macon before attending [[Atlanta University]] in 1869 for two years before enrolling at [[Oberlin College]]. Scarborough completed his degree at Oberlin in 1875. He also completed his degree in June 1876 at Atlanta University (now Clark Atlanta University).<ref>{{Cite book|last=Scarborough|first=William Sanders|date=2006|title=The Works of William Sanders Scarborough: Black Classicist and Race Leader|publisher=Oxford University Press, USA |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=7YD_JArkEscC&q=atlanta+university+first+graduate+class&pg=PA29|isbn=9780195309621}}</ref><ref name="Simmons1887"/><ref name="Culp1902"/>

==Early career==
After graduating from college, Scarborough returned as a teacher in classical languages to Lewis High School, where he met his future wife Sarah Bierce, who was the principal. Arsonists burned Lewis High School in 1876, and the local fire brigade let it burn to the ground. Scarborough briefly became principal of the [[Allen University|Payne Institute]] in [[Cokesbury, South Carolina]], but found the racial environment in South Carolina made it less hospitable than Georgia. He then returned to Oberlin to complete his master's degree.<ref name="Simmons1887"/><ref name="Culp1902"/>

==Wilberforce University==
Scarborough became a professor in the classical department at Wilberforce University in [[Wilberforce, Ohio]], in 1877. He married the white divorcée Sarah Cordelia Bierce, who had been a missionary in 1881 and also became a teacher at Wilberforce. Professor Scarborough published a popular Classical Greek textbook, ''First Lessons in Greek'', in 1881 and became the first postmaster in Wilberforce in the same year. A second book, ''Birds of [[Aristophanes]]'', followed in 1886.<ref name="Simmons1887"/><ref name="Culp1902"/>

Despite his prominence as a scholar, Scarborough suffered the effects of racial discrimination throughout his career. In 1909 when he had just become the president of Wilberforce, he was prohibited from attending an [[American Philological Association]] meeting in [[Baltimore, Maryland]], because the hotel refused to serve dinner if he was present, and they were threatening to sue for breach of contract if the Association canceled the Conference. The paper that he was due to read at the conference was read by someone else. However, in 1892, Scarborough gave a lecture on Plato at the [[University of Virginia]] in a room hung with pictures of [[Jefferson Davis]] and other confederate leaders and where no other African Americans were allowed except as servants.<ref>{{Cite web|title=A classical scholar's odyssey from slavery to academic renown|url=http://www.ur.umich.edu/0203/Feb17_03/04.shtml|website=www.ur.umich.edu|access-date=2020-05-10}}</ref>

[[File:W. S. Scarborough1915.jpg|thumb|Scarborough in 1915]]
In 1908, Scarborough was appointed President of Wilberforce University, serving in that position until 1920. Wilberforce University was the third oldest African American college and Scarborough was considered one of the leading African American scholars. As such, he published a number of papers on Negro education, as well as his works on classical languages{{citation needed|date=October 2016}}.

==Final years==
{{section refimprove|date=October 2016}}
In 1921, President [[Warren Harding|Harding]] appointed Scarborough to a position in the [[United States Department of Agriculture]] which he occupied until his death. He was working on an autobiography which wasn't published during his lifetime. However, [[Michele Ronnick]], professor in the Classics Department of [[Wayne State University]], found a copy of the manuscript in the archives of the [[Ohio Historical Society]]. Ronnick edited ''The Autobiography of William Sanders Scarborough: An American Journey From Slavery to Scholarship'', which was published in 2005 by Wayne State University Press with a foreword by [[Henry Louis Gates]].

Scarborough was a participant at the London session of the second [[Pan-African Congress]] held in 1921.

==Associations==
Scarborough was the third African American to join the [[American Philological Association]] and the first to join the [[Modern Language Association]], the latter of which has named a first-book prize in his honor. He was a member of the American Spelling Reform Association, the American Social Science Association, the American Foreign Antislavery society, a [[Freemasonry|mason]] of the I. O. Good Templars, and a member of the AME church. In the church, he was a trustee and Sunday School Superintendent. He gave many lectures throughout the country and frequently corresponded for newspapers and journals. He received an LL.D. from [[Liberia College]] in 1882.<ref name="Simmons1887"/><ref name="Culp1902"/>

He was a participant in the March 5, 1897 meeting to celebrate the memory of Frederick Douglass which founded the [[American Negro Academy]] led by [[Alexander Crummell]].<ref>Seraile, William. Bruce Grit: The Black Nationalist Writings of John Edward Bruce. Univ. of Tennessee Press, 2003. p110-111</ref>  Scarborough played an active role in the early years of this first major African American learned society, which refuted racist scholarship, promoted black claims to individual, social, and political equality, and studied the history and sociology of African American life.<ref>Alfred A. Moss. The American Negro Academy: Voice of the Talented Tenth. Louisiana State University Press, 1981.</ref>

==Works==
*''First Lessons in Greek'' (A.S. Barnes & Co, 1881)
*''Birds of Aristophanes'' (1886)
*''Questions on Latin Grammar, with Appendix.'' (University Publication Company of New York 1887)
*''The Autobiography of William Sanders Scarborough: An American Journey From Slavery to Scholarship'' (Unpublished during his lifetime)

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==Further reading==
*"William Saunders Scarborough". ''Dictionary of American Biography Base Set''. American Council of Learned Societies, 1928-1936.
*"'Africa For The Africans.'" Times [London, England] 13 Aug. 1921: 7. The Times Digital Archive.
*Ronnick, M.V. (ed.) (2005) ''The Autobiography of William Sanders Scarborough: An American Journey From Slavery to Scholarship'', Wayne State University Press, {{ISBN|0-8143-3224-2}}
*Ronnick, M.V. (ed.) (2006) "The Works of William Sanders Scarborough: Black Classicist and Race Leader", Oxford University Press, {{ISBN|978-0-19-530962-1}}

==External links==
{{Commons}}
*[http://www.toledoblade.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050204/COLUMNIST17/502040324 Jack Lessenberry "Scarborough: An American Hero of the Mind" ''Toledo Blade'', published February 4, 2005, retrieved November 5, 2005]
*[http://aaregistry.com/african_american_history/65/Scholar_William_S_Scarborough_born African American Registry article on William Sanders Scarborough]
*{{DBCS}}
* {{Gutenberg author | id=35102}}
* {{Internet Archive author |sname=William Sanders Scarborough}}
*[https://rose.library.emory.edu/ Stuart A. Rose Manuscript, Archives, and Rare Book Library], Emory University: [http://pid.emory.edu/ark:/25593/8zvgq W.S. Scarborough scrapbook, 1890-1926]

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Scarborough, William Sanders}}
[[Category:American classical scholars]]
[[Category:Oberlin College alumni]]
[[Category:20th-century African-American academics]]
[[Category:20th-century American academics]]
[[Category:19th-century African-American educators]]
[[Category:19th-century American educators]]
[[Category:Classics educators]]
[[Category:Writers from Macon, Georgia]]
[[Category:1852 births]]
[[Category:1926 deaths]]
[[Category:Wilberforce University faculty]]
[[Category:Presidents of Wilberforce University]]
[[Category:19th-century African-American writers]]