Robin Buckson / The Detroit News Wayne State University professor Michele Valerie Ronnick researched intellectuals, left to right, Richard Theodore Greener, James Monroe Gregory and Wiley Lane for the "12 Black Classicists" exhibit. Exhibit uncovers little-known African-American intellectuals By Joy Hakanson Colby The Detroit News PREVIEW DETROIT Drofessor Michele Valerie Ronnick, who teaches the classics at Wayne State University, has been on an intellectual archeological dig of sorts since the early 1990s. "I've been collecting, organizing and preserving information about African Americans involved with the classical subjects of Latin, Greek and mythology," she says. "It started with me wondering this: "Who are the black classicists that deserve to be in the history books?' " Ronnick was determined to find out, and the results of her "dig" went on exhibit this week at the Main Detroit Public Library, the first stop for her photo exhibit, "12 Black Classicists." The exhibit will go on: a national tour of colleges and universities when it closes here Sept. 27. The exhibit was funded by the James Loeb Classical Library Foundation at Harvard University. "My research made me realize that there was a whole pattern here, an intellectual chapter of American history that almost nobody knew about," Ronnick says. "I'm trying to connect the dots. It's very exciting." The professor's dozen scholars, 1 Il men and one woman, taught Greek and Latin at the college level. She says their achievements laid the groundwork for the serious study and teaching of languages (philology) among African Americans. "Everyone who studies language and literature in the U.S. today, be it Italian, Swahili, Sanskrit, English or Arabic, can trace the origin of their disciplines to the scholars featured in this photo installa- 412 Black Classicists' Detroit Public Library 5201 Woodward Ave., Detroit noon-8 p.m. -Wed.: 10 a.m.-6 p.m. Thurs., Fri., Sat. through Sept. 27 Free lecture by Michele Valerie Ronnick 10:30 a.m. Sept. 13 Call (313) 833-4043 tion," Ronnick emphasizes. The professor's search began when she ran across a reference to William Sanders Scarborough (1852-1926) as the first black member of the venerable Modern Language Association. Scarborough, who was president of Wilberforce University in Wilberforce, Ohio, was born into slavery and secretly taught himself to read and write. When he mastered those skills, he went on to learn Greek and Latin. Also featured in the exhibit are Lewis Baxter Moore, who earned a Ph.D. from the University of Pennsylvania for his work on the Greek tragedian Sophocles and Wiley Lane, the first black professor of Greek at Howard University in Washington, D.C. "I discovered that black schools like Wilberforce, Howard and Hampton (University) taught the classics," says Ronnick, who is white. "But somehow, people in the field became invisible. My exhibit is meant to show that knowledge of Latin, Greek and mythology is not a white elitist thing. The historic African-American classicists were all eggheads in the best sense." You can reach Joy Colby at (313) 222-2276 and jcolby@ detnews.com.