Harvard’s First African-American Diploma at Auction

Greener, who graduated in 1870, was a pioneer of social and racial equality in the racially divided South. His Harvard diploma, a document of incalculable historical significance, has never before been offered at public auction. “Our firm is honored to be facilitating the sale of this incredibly important document,” says Mary Kohnke, Director of Fine Books and Manuscripts at Leslie Hindman Auctioneers. “Greener’s Harvard diploma is a symbol of the power of the individual spirit to overcome incredible prejudice and break down institutional and social barriers.”After studying at Oberlin and Andover, Greener enrolled at Harvard in 1865, where he won two Bowdoin prizes as an undergraduate. Following his graduation with honors, Greener taught philosophy at the University of South Carolina, from which he was able to obtain his law degree in 1876. He was admitted to the South Carolina bar in 1878 and later became the dean of the School of Law at Howard University. Greener was appointed secretary of the Grant Memorial Association in New York in 1885 and later U.S. commercial agent at Vladivostok in Siberia by President McKinley in 1898. He retired from office and foreign service in 1905, and lived with cousins in Chicago until his death in 1922.