People, Locations, Episodes

Richard Greener, Legal, and Political Advisor born

Richard T. Greener

*Richard Theodore Greener was born on this date in 1844. He was a Black administrator, politician, lawyer, and educator.

From Philadelphia, when Greener was about nine, his father left the family to pursue mining opportunities in California. Tragically, his father was presumed dead after efforts to locate him failed. His mother moved the family to Boston, then to Cambridge, in search of educational opportunities for her son.  Greener received his early education at the Broadway Grammar School until he was about 14 when he quit supporting his mother.

Greener found several jobs and was able to support his family as well as get his education. One of Greener's employers, Franklin B. Sanborn, a famous teacher and reformer, used his influence to get him accepted to Oberlin College. After three years at Oberlin, Greener left to study at Harvard College. In his sophomore and senior years at Harvard, he won a Bowdoin Prize for elocution. 1870 he received an A.B. degree, becoming their first Black graduate.

From there, Greener became the principal of the Male Department at Philadelphia's Institute for Colored Youth, which later became Cheyney University. In 1873, he became the principal of the Sumner High School in Washington, DC. He was a staff member of The New National Era, which was then edited by abolitionist Frederick Douglass.  He was also associate editor of the National Encyclopedia of American Biography.  In late 1873, Greener became a Professor of Mental and Moral Philosophy at the University of South Carolina, where he served as librarian, taught Philosophy, and assisted in the Departments of Latin and Greek, Mathematics, and Constitutional History. In 1875, he became the first Black to be elected a member of the American Philological Association, the primary academic society for classical studies in North America.

Greener received an LL.B. degree at the University of South Carolina's Law School in 1876, graduating with honors. He was admitted to the Supreme Court of South Carolina in 1877 and the bar of the District of Columbia the next year. In 1882, he received an LL.D. conferred by Monrovia College, Liberia, Africa, and in 1907, he was honored with another LL.D. conferred by Howard University.

In 1879, Greener was appointed Dean of Howard University's Law Department, and in 1881 opened a private law practice in Washington. During Presidents McKinley and Roosevelt's administrations, Greener was prominent in national and international affairs. He became the first secretary of New York's Grant Memorial Association and assisted in raising funds to finance Grant's Tomb. In 1898, he was appointed United Consul to Bombay, India, then transferred to Vladivostok, Russia, becoming the first American to hold this post.

In 1902, the Chinese Government decorated him with the Order of Double Dragon for his service to the Boxer War and assistance to Shansi famine sufferers. After his retirement in 1906, Greener lived in Chicago, where he died on May 15, 1922. For more information on this subject, please see

To become a High School Teacher