The Autobiography of William Sanders Scarborough: An American Journey from Slave

This illuminating autobiography traces Scarborough's path out of slavery in Macon, Georgia, to a prolific scholarly career that culminated with his presidency of Wilberforce University. Despite the racism he met as he struggled to establish a place in higher education for African Americans, Scarborough was an exemplary scholar, particularly in the field of classical studies. He was the first African American member of the Modern Language Association, a forty-four-year member of the American Philological Association, and a true champion of higher education. Scarborough advocated the reading, writing, and teaching of liberal arts at a time when illiteracy was rampant due to slavery's legacy, white supremacists were dismissing the intellectual capability of blacks, and Booker T. Washington was urging African Americans to focus on industrial skills and training. 
The Autobiography of William Sanders Scarborough is a valuable historical record of the life and work of a pioneer who helped formalize the intellectual tradition of the black scholar. Michele Valerie Ronnick contextualizes Scarborough's narrative through extensive notes and by exploring a wide variety of sources such as census records, church registries, period newspapers, and military and university records. This book is indispensable to anyone interested in the history of intellectual endeavor in America, Africana studies and classical studies, in particular, as well as those familiar with the associations and institutions that welcomed and valued Scarborough.


Author: Michele Valerie Ronnick, William Sanders Scarborough
Publisher: Wayne State University Press
Published: 12/06/2004
Pages: 425
Binding Type: Hardcover
Weight: 1.71lbs
Size: 9.24h x 6.30w x 1.29d
ISBN: 9780814332245
About the Author
Michele Valerie Ronnick is Professor in the Department of Classical and Modern Languages, Literatures, and Cultures at Wayne State University in Detroit. Her photo installation, 12 Black Classicists, created with the support of the James Loeb Classical Library Foundation at Harvard University has been displayed nearly 60 times since 2003. In addition to The Autobiography of William Sanders Scarborough: An American Journey from Slavery to Scholarship (Wayne State University Press, 2005), she has published Cicero's Paradoxa Stoicorum: A Commentary, an Interpretation, and a Study of Its Influence,  Studien zur klassischen Philologie, Band 62, forward by Michael von Albrecht (1991), William Sanders Scarborough: Black Classicist and Race Leader (2006), forward by Henry Louis Gates, Jr. and William Sanders Scarborough's First Lessons in Greek: A Facsimile of the 1881 First Edition, forward by Ward W. Briggs, Jr. (2019). In 2005 her hometown, Sarasota, FL named March 12, 2005 Michele Valerie Ronnick Day for her work on Scarborough and in 2006 Macon, GA, Scarborough's birthplace, gave her a key to the city. Through this work she has pioneered the study of classical influences upon people of African descent