William Sanders Scarborough: The First African American Classical Scholar

William Sanders Scarborough was born in Macon, Georgia, on February 16, 1852. He is widely considered to be the first African American Classical scholar.

Born to an enslaved mother and a free father, Scarborough and his family made their home alternately on the East and West banks of the Ocmulgee River before finally settling in East Macon where his parents lived out their lives. Because the law dictated that the children of enslaved mothers inherited their status, Scarborough was born enslaved, but enjoyed a great degree of freedom as his mother was allowed to live in her own house and his father was a free railway employee.  This degree of freedom appears to have facilitated his ability to access an education as he learned to read.

Scarborough attended Lewis High School and Macon, established in by the American missionary association to educate Black children. He furthered his education at Atlanta University (now Clark Atlanta University) and continued to Oberlin College where he earned a degree in 1875.

Scarborough taught in several schools, including Lewis High school in Macon as well as Paine Institute in Cokesbury, South Carolina. Eventually, he became a professor at Wilberforce University and Wilberforce, Ohio. He is perhaps best known for the textbook First Lessons in Greek, which was published in 1881. He was the first African American to join the Modern Language Association and the third to join the American Philological Association.

Scarborough was a longtime member of the African Methodist Episcopal Church. He passed away on September 9, 1926.