John Wesley Gilbert - Student and Educator

Student and Educator

While at Brown, he received a scholarship to attend the American School of Classics in Athens, Greece. He was the first African American to attend that school, and remained the only one to have through 1901. During his time, he was bestowed an award for "excellence" in Greek. He was there from 1890-1891 and conducted archaeological excavations on Eretria with Professor John Pickard. After his work there, he produced the first map of Ancient Eretria.

He received his bachelor's degree from Brown in 1888. In 1891, he became the first African American to receive a master's degree from Brown after the completion of this thesis, "The Demes of Attica." In 1891, he returned to Augusta, Georgia and began to teach the Greek language and English at his former school, Paine College. In 1913, he was appointed the president of Miles College. He served in that post for one year before returning to Paine College. He died on November 19, 1923.

Read more about this topic:  John Wesley Gilbert

Famous quotes containing the word student:

    The student may read Homer or Æschylus in the Greek without danger of dissipation or luxuriousness, for it implies that he in some measure emulate their heroes, and consecrate morning hours to their pages.
    Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)