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USC Unveils Statue of First African-American Professor

Richard T. Greener was also the first African-American graduate of Harvard University.

Wednesday evening, the University of South Carolina will unveil a statue honoring the schools first African-American professor, Richard T. Greener.

The 9-foot statue, created by Sculptor Jon Hair, will be erected near the Thomas Cooper Library.

Greener served Carolina during Reconstruction from 1873 to 1877.

Greener taught philosophy, Latin and Greek while at USC, and was the first African-American graduate of Harvard University.

"We've learned so much more and we're trying to celebrate who he was and also to represent who we are trying to become today and what he means to us today in terms of representation of who we are as th e State of South Carolina and the University of South Carolina," said Dr. Christian Anderson, Associate Professor of Educational Leadership and Policies at USC.

Greener lobbied legislature for scholarships; three from every county across the state. It was then when he realized, some students at USC didn't have the proper educational opportunities for college. So, he created a sub-freshman class to prepare them for university life.

Richard T. Greener

"On top of all that, he also served as the librarian here in what we now call the Caroliniana Libarary," said Anderson. "Some of the books were miscataloged and he gave it its first modern cataloging. Believe it or not, there was no check-in or check-out system, so there were books all over town."

The statue will sit in the heart of USC's campus, in the middle of the hustle and bustle.

But for years, students have already walked past Greener's home on campus inside Lieber College, on the edge of USC's Horseshoe.

"This shows a representation of a contribution that, for a long time, has been forgotten," said Anderson.

Greener later served as dean of the Howard University School of Law and as a diplomat for the U.S. in Vladivostok, Russia.

He is the only person to be memorialized with a statue on the University of South Carolina's central campus.

There are other statues on campus, for example, a man on horseback outside Wardlaw College. Anderson says that statue is representational and doesn't represent anyone in particular. Another statue of George Rogers sits at the stadium, but that's technically not on USC's campus.

The unveiling comes at a perfect time, too, just days after Greener's 174th birthday.

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