There, he obtained his Master’s and became a professor at Wilberforce University, then one of the premiere Black colleges. Scarborough published a popular college textbook titled First Lessons In Greek and in 1881, he married Sarah Bierce, a white principal he met while working at the school in Macon.
Scarborough was one of the first Black members to join national academic groups, including the American Philological Association (APA), and was the very first to join the Modern Languages Association (MLA). The MLA has since created a first-book prize bearing Scarborough’s name. While prestigious academic bodies recognized Scarborough, he was constantly bombarded by racism and suffered financially because of it. One of Scarborough’s lowest moments occurred during an APA meeting in Baltimore in 1909.
Archaeologist Francis W. Kelsey rescinded Scarborough’s invitation because the hotel where the event was held would not serve dinner if the Black professor were present. Scarborough remained at Wilberforce until he was appointed to serve in the U.S. Department of Agriculture, where he worked until his death in 1926.
Before his death, he was working on his autobiography, which was later discovered by Wayne State University professor Michelle Ronnick. Ronnick helped to edit the book The Autobiography of William Sanders Scarborough: An American Journey From Slavery to Scholarship, which was released in 2005 and featured a foreword from Henry Louis Gates.
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Little Known Black History Fact: William S. Scarborough was originally published on blackamericaweb.com
