The Autobiography of William Sanders Scarborough

An American Journey from Slavery to Scholarship

William Sanders Scarborough

• Publisher: Wayne State University Press
• Year: 2021
• Print ISBN: 9780814332252
• eBook ISBN: 9780814348895
• Topic: Social Sciences
• Subtopic: Social Science Biographies
• Index: Social Sciences

An important autobiography that reveals the story of William Sanders Scarborough who rose out of slavery to become a renowned classical philologist and African American icon.

"If W.E.B Du Bois, the antecedent of today's black public intellectuals, himself has an antecedent, it is W. S. Scarborough, the black scholar's scholar." – Henry Louis Gates Jr.
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.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Dedication
• Contents
• Acknowledgments
• Foreword
• Introduction
• I. Parentage
• II. Boyhood Days
• III. Macon and Atlanta School Days
• IV. Four Years in Oberlin College
• V. Seeking a Path
• VI. The Path Found
• VII. Widening Fields—Working, Learning, Growing
• VIII. Authorship—Greek Book—Marriage
• IX. Philology and Politics
• X. Philology and Other Literary Work
• XI. In Politics and Magazines
• XII. In Payne Seminary and at a Southern University
• XIII. At the World’s Congress Auxiliary of the Columbian Exposition
• XIV. Friends and Helpers—Deaths
• XV. Back to the Classical Professorship and a Vice Presidency
• XVI. First European Trip—Delegate to the Third Methodist Ecumenical Conference—London, 1901
• XVII. Miscellaneous Activities
• XVIII. Made President of Wilberforce University
• XIX. Second Trip to Europe—Delegate to the First Universal Races Congress—[A] Rhine Trip
• XX. Labors for Wilberforce University—Incidents
• XXI. Trips—South, West, and East
• XXII. World War I Work
• XXIII. Local and Closing War Labors
• XXIV. Close of Forty-five Years in the Field of Education
• XXV. Third Visit to Europe—Again Delegate to the Methodist Ecumenical Conference in London—Scotland—Continental Trip
• XXVI. A New Field of Labor
• XXVII. Retirement from Public Life—Fiftieth Anniversary of Oberlin’s Class of 1875
• XXVIII. Looking Backward and Forward
• XXIX. The End [Mrs. Scarborough’s Record of Professor Scarborough’s Last Days]
• Notes
• Archival Materials: A Selected Source List
• Index