This collection contains materials pertaining to William S. Scarborough's career. It especially focuses on Scarborough's work as a classical scholar and advocate for black education. Relevant materials include literary analyses of classical works and lectures.
This image was scanned from the Scarborough collection.
This finding aid includes a file-level inventory of the collection and is subject to change if more materials are added. See the attached file.
William Sanders Scarborough was born on 16 February 1852 in Macon, Georgia. His parents were Jeremiah Scarborough—a free man—and Frances Gwynnan—an enslaved woman. According to the law, Scarborough shared the condition of his mother, making him the legal property of Colonel William DeGraffenreid. Despite their enslaved status, Scarborough viewed DeGraffenreid favorably for “his kindness to [the Scarborough family].”
Scarborough’s foray into education began with his tutelage under J.C. Thomas and continued throughout his childhood. Near the end of the Civil War, he began studying at Lewis High School. Scarborough initially attended Atlanta University to prepare for an education at Yale. However, he ultimately pursued his classical education at Oberlin College, earning his A.B. in 1875.
In 1877, Scarborough was elected Chair of the Classical department at Wilberforce University, a position he would hold for the next 14 years. He then served as a professor of Hellenistic Greek for some years at Payne Theological Seminary before returning to his previous role at Wilberforce in 1897. In 1908, Scarborough became the university’s sixth president, 1920. After retiring, Scarborough was appointed by President Warren G. Harding as the Assistant in Farm Studies at the U.S. Department of Agriculture. He served in this role until his death on 9 September 1926, leaving a wife of 45 years—Sarah Bierce Scarborough—to grieve.
Unless otherwise stated, this information comes from the collection itself.
Bibliography
Scarborough, William S. The Autobiography of William Sanders Scarborough. Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 2005.