Photo exhibit on display at U of T celebrates the important role of Black Classicists

A new installation at the University of Toronto celebrates the important role of Black Classicists who overcame enormous obstacles to advance Greek and Latin language studies.

Housed in the Lillian Massey Building on the St. George campus , the photo exhibit, “Black Classicists in North America” celebrates eighteen prominent scholars of the 19th and 20th centuries.

“This exhibition has been displayed in many U.S. and U.K. institutions, but this is the first time it has been made available in Canada,” says Ben Akrigg, an associate professor with the department of classics in the Faculty of Arts & Science who helped facilitate this exhibit coming to U of T.

“Being confronted directly with their portraits reminds us that these were real individuals, and not just footnotes. They can still talk to us as colleagues through their written words. Many of their concerns and interests, especially as teachers, do speak directly to us in that way.”

The exhibition was assembled and curated by Michele Valerie Ronnick, a distinguished professor at Wayne State University. Ronnick partnered with Akrigg as well as Ronald Charles, an associate professor in U of T’s department for the study of religion to bring the exhibit to the university.

The portraits include classicists such as John Wesley Edward Bowen (1855–1933). Born into slavery in New Orleans, he graduated from New Orleans University in 1878 and later taught Greek and Latin at Central Tennessee College in Nashville.

In 1887 he became the first African American to earn a PhD at Boston University. His essay, “An Apology for the Higher Education of the Negro,” (Methodist Review, 1897) supported the study of classics. He was president of Gammon Theological Seminary in Atlanta from 1910 to 1914.

Orishatukeh Faduma (1855-1946) was born in the former British colony of Guyana where his parents lived after abduction by slavers. He was first educated by missionaries in Sierra Leone.

He earned a bachelor’s degree from Yale University’s School of Divinity in 1894 and taught Greek and Latin at Lincoln Academy in King’s Mount, N.C. and Virginia Theological Seminary in Lynchburg. He joined the American Negro Academy in 1899 and the American Philological Association the following year.

Helen Maria Chesnutt (1880–1969) was the daughter of novelist Charles Chesnutt — an American author, essayist and political activist, best known for his novels and short stories exploring complex issues of racial and social identity in the post-Civil War South.

She earned a bachelor’s degree from Smith College in 1902 and her master’s in Latin from Columbia University in 1925.

She taught Latin at Central High School in Cleveland. Her pupil, Langston Hughes, who became a celebrated poet and activist, found her inspiring. In 1932, Chesnutt co-authored The Road to Latin, a textbook that was printed several times. She also belonged to the American Philological Association from 1920 to 1934.

“The institutional structures of classics as they developed in the nineteenth century were designed to facilitate and perpetuate the success of certain groups,” says Akrigg. “These men and women were from outside those groups and the successes they achieved came in spite of formidable obstacles.

“Most of them were teachers and they provided not only an example but often direct inspiration and encouragement to those who came in their footsteps. They played a vital role in widening access to the discipline. They also, however, remind us that that process of widening is still far from complete.”