Release Date: October 12, 2004

William-Sanders-Scarborough

MONMOUTH, Ill. — “Twelve Black Classicists: A Photographic Installation” is currently on display in Monmouth College’s Hewes Library from through the end of October.

The installation was created by Michele Valerie Ronnick and funded by the James Loeb Classical Library Foundation at Harvard University. An associate professor of Classics, Greek and Latin at Wayne State University, Ronnick will be on campus Oct. 14 to deliver a lecture in conjunction with the exhibit entitled “Classica Africana: The Origins of Black Classicism.” It will take place at 7:30 p.m. in the Barnes Electronic Classroom. Both Ronnick’s lecture and the photography exhibit are free and open to the public. A reception for Ronnick will follow her talk.

The classicists depicted in the exhibit are Edward Wilmot Blyden, Richard Theodore Greener, William Sanders Scarborough, James Monroe Gregory, Frazelia Campbell, Wiley Lane, William Henry Crogman, John Wesley Gilbert, Daniel Barclay Williams, Lewis Baxter Moore, Reuben Shannon Lovinggood and George Morton Lightfoot. The dozen African-American classical scholars all made groundbreaking achievements in education in the post-Civil War era, helping to pave the way for future generations of African-Americans entering American universities.

“With them,” said Ronnick, “begins the serious study and teaching of philology (the study of language) by African Americans. All who study language and literature in the U.S. today, be it Italian, Swahili, Sanskrit, English or Arabic, trace the origin of their disciplines to the men and women featured in this photo installation.”

Each classicist has his or her own fascinating story, including Gilbert, the son of slaves in Hephzibah, Ga. He rose from that background to earn his bachelor’s and master’s degrees in Greek from Brown University. In 1890, he was the first black to go to the American School in Athens, Greece. Gilbert then taught at Paine College until his death.

Said one reviewer, “(Ronnick) has tapped into a bottled up and frustrated feeling amoung thoughful folks that someone somewhere should honor the courageous intellectual exemplars from black American society. People are expressing gratitude (to her) for doing the work required to shatter crippling stereotypes and perhaps inspire young people to not accept hip-hop and illiteracy as their ‘authentic’ cultural expression.”

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