Richard Theodore Greener (January 30, 1844 – May 2, 1922) was a pioneering African-American scholar, excelling in elocution, philosophy, law and classics in the Reconstruction era. In 1870, he became the first black undergraduate at Harvard University to receive a bachelor's degree.
The previous year, Harvard Law School, Harvard Medical School, and the Harvard School of Dental Medicine awarded degrees to their first black graduates in 1869.
After graduating with honors from Harvard, Greener worked as a high school teacher and principal. In 1873, he was recruited by the University of South Carolina (USC) to become the school's first black professor. While on the USC faculty, he enrolled in and graduated from USC's Law School. He also served as associate editor for the New National Era, a newspaper owned and edited by Frederick Douglass. In 1875, Greener became the first black elected to the American Philological Association, the primary academic society for classical studies in North America. In 1876, he was admitted to practice in the Supreme Court of South Carolina, and the following year he was also admitted to the Bar of the District of Columbia. He went on to serve as dean of the Howard University School of Law.
In 1898, he became America's first black diplomat to a white country, serving in Vladivostok, Russia. In 1902, the Chinese government honored him for his service to the Boxer War, and his assistance to Shansi famine sufferers. He served as an American representative during the Russo-Japanese War, but left the diplomatic service in 1905.
In 2018, Phillips Andover honored Greener (Andover, Class of 1865) by renaming the campus quad, the Richard T. Greener Quadrangle. That same year, the University of South Carolina unveiled a nine-foot statue of Greener that stands outside the school's main library, and Harvard established the Greener Scott Scholars Mentorship Program in honor of Greener and Alberta Virginia Scott, the first Black graduate of Radcliffe College. In 2020, the 101st Illinois General Assembly adopted House Resolution 0638 to honor Greener, and in 2021, the Cook County Board of Commissioners (Illinois) passed a similar resolution to salute Greener for his achievements.
Richard Greener was born on January 30, 1844 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. His parents were Mary Ann LeBrune, and Richard Wesley Greener, a seaman. His maternal grandfather was Alphonse Josef Le Brune,
a “Spaniard from Puerto Rico”. His paternal grandfather, Jacob Greener, was a well-known educator in Baltimore, Maryland.
In 1853, when he was nine years old, Greener moved to Cambridge, Massachusetts, and attended Broadway Grammar School. Seeking fortune in California during the Gold Rush migration, his father left the family and never returned to Cambridge.
The younger Greener dropped out of school between the ages of 11 and 14 to help support his family by working odd jobs in the Boston-Cambridge area.
While employed as a porter at the Pavilion Hotel in Boston, he became friendly with Judge Thomas Russell, who gave him access to his personal library, and another hotel guest who taught him French. He also met Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr., whom he went boating with along the Charles River. Greener worked as a porter and nightwatchman for Augustus Batchelder, a Boston jeweler who would become his mentor and benefactor. Batchelder paid for Greener's tuition at Oberlin Academy and Phillips Andover. He graduated from Andover in 1865.
At the age of 21, Greener was admitted to Harvard in 1865. He struggled academically his freshman year, lived in College House, and withdrew after his first term. He returned to Harvard the following year to complete his studies. He was a member of the Pi Eta Society, known for its dramatic productions; Thayer Club, a cooperative that provided inexpensive food and lodging; and a resident of Stoughton Hall. He was a writer for the ”Harvard Advocate” literary magazine, and was a Class Day speaker at Commencement. He won a Bowdoin Prize for meritorious thesis research and writing, and second place in the Lee Prize for his oratory skills. Greener graduated with honors from Harvard in 1870.
In addition, he earned Bowden Prizes for elocution in his sophomore and senior years, which the Rochester Daily Democrat mentioned in an article on August 16, 1869:
Richard Theodore Greener, a young colored man and a member of the senior class of Harvard College, is giving public readings in Philadelphia. Mr. Greener's history is that of a persevering young man who has succeeded in living down the prejudices against his race and color, and attaining by industry, ability, and good character, a position of which he may well feel proud. He was awarded last year, at Harvard College, the prize for reading, and this year he has drilled two young white men who have likewise obtained prizes in the same branch. His course at Harvard has throughout been honorable. He is the first colored youth who has ever passed through that college.
After graduating from Harvard, Greener served as a principal at the Institute for Colored Youth (today Cheyney University) in Philadelphia from September 1870 until December 1872. He succeeded Octavius V. Catto, who was shot in a riot. From January 1 to July 1, 1873, he was principal of the Sumner High School, a colored preparatory school in Washington, D.C. While at Sumner, Greener worked part-time in the U.S. Attorney's office where he first began his legal studies.
After leaving the Sumner School, Greener briefly took a job as associate editor of The New National Era in April 1873, working under editor Frederick Douglass. He was also an associate editor for the National Encyclopedia for American Biography.
In 1873, Greener was recruited to join the faculty at the University of South Carolina (USC), where he was the university's first black professor. He is credited with being the only black professor at a southern university during the Reconstruction era. As a USC professor, he taught Greek, Latin, law, and philosophy courses.
In 1874, he was USC's "Public Day" commencement speaker. His speech, "Charles Sumner, the Idealist, Statesman and Scholar", was a posthumous tribute to his friend, Senator Charles Sumner (MA) (1811 – 1874), and was later published as a paper.
At USC, Greener also served as a university librarian, helping to "reorganize and catalog the library's holdings which were in disarray after the Civil War" and wrote a monograph on the rare books of the library. In 1875, Greener became the first black elected member of the American Philological Association (APA), the primary academic society for classical studies in North America. In 1876, his paper, “The Library of the University of South Carolina: Its Rare and Curious Books,” was accepted for presentation.