Michele Valerie Ronnick, associate professor of classics at Wayne State University, gave a lecture on Thursday, April 5 called “William Sanders Scarborough, Oberlin College 1875, and the Origins of Black Classicism.” The lecture illustrated the amazing life of Scarborough, a former slave and Oberlin graduate. Ronnick began researching the topic of early black classicists 14 years ago and was the first to devote herself to that field of study. In conjunction with her lecture, Ronnick contributed to an exhibit that will be in Mudd throughout April called 13 Black Classicists.

How did you first come upon Scarborough?
I found a sketch of him, maybe a 700-word sketch in a biographical dictionary of African Americans done in the 1980s and it mentions that Scarborough was a member of the the American Philological Association and that he had written a Greek textbook. But it was a very short sketch.

Obviously there are many amazing aspects about Scarborough’s life. What for you stood out most about his career?
A trajectory out of slavery, which is a disenfranchisement of the most horrendous form. He wasn’t supposed to learn to read or write or count or do anything and then, the development of a consummate professional doing all the things we would acknowledge today in the academy: writing books, giving lectures, attending academic meetings, participating in leadership on campus, being president [of Wilberforce University], even being involved in politics. An incredible push! I find that just astonishing. I still do.

Three out of the 13 classicists in your exhibit hail from Oberlin. Any comment?
Part of the rich tradition of Oberlin College and all the more reason to welcome Scarborough home after so long a time away, hidden by decades and decades of time. He reaches back to the traditions that the College says it’s most proud of.  All those things. I hope one day that you all really do fully embrace him. He’s nationally significant and one suspects that maybe he learned some of the things that he used in his later life here. 

There is little known about the history of these early black classicists and no authoritative text on the matter yet. What other difficulties did you find in your research?
I guess the disciplinary lines that have separated classics from African American studies so that in trying to gather this information I had to really step out of my discipline, the narrow discipline of classics and see if I could find and teach myself how to use African American texts and documents. I feel like I earned a Ph.D. in African American history actually.

You are the first person to specialize in this field of history. What are your hopes for your work?
I hope it energizes the field in that classicists and African American scholars can move the question forward and discover new aspects of this because there is plenty, plenty of work to be done.