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Biography · Education & Scholarship

Richard Theodore Greener

1844–1922

United States

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Biography

Richard Theodore Greener (January 30, 1844 – May 2, 1922) was a pioneering African-American scholar, excelling in elocution, philosophy, law and classics in the Reconstruction era. In 1870, he became the first black undergraduate at Harvard University to receive a bachelor's degree. The previous year, Harvard Law School, Harvard Medical School, and the Harvard School of Dental Medicine awarded degrees to their first black graduates in 1869.

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Biography text · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Source checked 2026-10-13

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