“G” is for Greener, Richard Theodore [1844-1922]. Teacher, diplomat. A native of Philadelphia, Greener was the first African American to earn an undergraduate degree from Harvard. After teaching in Washington and Philadelphia, in 1873 he accepted the professorship of mental and moral philosophy at the newly integrated University of South Carolina. He was also the university’s librarian. He gave the university’s commencement address in 1874. In 1877 he resigned his professorship and took a position in the US Treasury Department. He later practiced law, was dean of the law school at Howard University, and U.S. commercial agent in Vladivostok, Russia. Returning to the U.S., he settled in Chicago and occasionally gave lectures on his career. Richard Theodore Greener visited South Carolina in 1906 and 1907, lecturing at Allen University, Benedict College, and South Carolina State College.
Dr. Walter Edgar has two programs on South Carolina Public Radio: Walter Edgar's Journal, and South Carolina from A to Z. Dr. Edgar received his B.A. degree from Davidson College in 1965 and his Ph.D. from the University of South Carolina in 1969. After two years in the army (including a tour of duty in Vietnam), he returned to USC as a post-doctoral fellow of the National Archives, assigned to the Papers of Henry Laurens.