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The First Black Archaeologist: A Life of John Wesley Gilbert

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John W.I. Lee discusses the groundbreaking life of John Wesley Gilbert, an African American scholar who rose from slavery to become a pioneering archaeologist, educator, and advocate for interracial cooperation, contributing to archaeology in Greece and missionary work in Africa.

Image courtesy of interviewee. October 14, 2024

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This video discusses the life and contributions of Wesley Gilbert, who was born in 1863 and died in 1923. He was a classical scholar specializing in Greek and Latin, an educator, a Christian missionary, and a key figure in African American education after the Civil War. The author of the text, an ancient historian, shares their personal journey of uncovering Gilbert's story, which was largely unknown due to the loss of archives from Gilbert's school, Payne College, in a fire.

Throughout the research process, the author employed various techniques typical of ancient historians, such as seeking out fragmented sources and utilizing digital tools to find references to Gilbert’s work. They also engaged with the local community in Augusta, Georgia, to gather materials and insights about Gilbert's impact.

Gilbert was notable for being one of the first professionally trained African American archaeologists and played a significant role in advancing African American education and the study of classical languages. He taught at Payne College and was involved in an interracial missionary effort to the Belgian Congo, which aimed to establish a Christian presence and support among African communities.

This video emphasizes Gilbert's resilience in facing the challenges of racism and segregation in a tumultuous period of American history. It captures his belief in education and cooperation across racial lines, as well as his contributions to both academia and local community life.

The author ultimately aims for readers to appreciate Gilbert's significant role in the history of African American scholarship, education, and archaeology, as well as the importance of community engagement in research.

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Here are five key points from the video regarding Wesley Gilbert and the motivations behind the author's research:

1. **Wesley Gilbert's Background and Achievements**: Wesley Gilbert (1863-1923) was a classical scholar, educator, and the first professionally trained African American archaeologist. He made significant contributions to African American education and worked as a Christian missionary, particularly noted for his early involvement in missions in the Belgian Congo.

2. **Research Challenges**: The author faced significant challenges in researching Gilbert's life due to the destruction of Payne College's archives in a fire in 1968. However, the author used skills from ancient history, including working with fragments of evidence and making community connections in Augusta, to uncover new sources and information about Gilbert.

3. **Intersection of Education and Faith**: Gilbert's educational pursuits in classical languages were typical of the post-Civil War generation of African Americans seeking higher education. He balanced his roles as an educator in those subjects with his commitments as a minister in the Colored Methodist Episcopal Church, illustrating how education and faith were interwoven in his life.

4. **Pioneering Contributions to Archaeology**: The author highlights Gilbert's pioneering role in archaeology during his time in Greece, where he conducted professional research and excavations. He was among the first African Americans to engage seriously with archaeology, marking a significant contribution to the field.

5. **Community Engagement and Future Research**: The author emphasizes the importance of community connections in research, particularly relating to the African American historical and cultural community in Augusta. There are calls for future researchers to engage with local communities and recognize the collaborative nature of historical research, as well as to explore further studies on other overlooked African American scholars from the same era.

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Here are some key quotes and passages from the video about Wesley Gilbert and the author's reflections on his motivations and experiences in researching Gilbert's life:

1. **On personal motivations for the book:**
- “I was working on another project, I was looking around for something new. I discovered Professor Gilbert's name... So my motivations, I think, were looking for something new. But as I went on, I became drawn into a world I just had no idea about.”

2. **On the challenges of researching Gilbert's life:**
- “Undertaking research for a book on John Wesley Gilbert was quite challenging because the archives of his school, a school named Payne College in Augusta, Georgia, had been destroyed by a fire in 1968.”

3. **On applying ancient history skills:**
- “I'm an ancient historian, and we are very used to working with fragments and evidence that does not exist... I applied my ancient history research skills to looking for other sources.”

4. **On the significance of Gilbert’s education:**
- “He was part of the first post-Civil War, post-slavery generation of young African Americans... He wanted to get an education... The types of things he was studying, classical Greek and Latin, were also pretty typical of what young black people were learning.”

5. **On Gilbert's pioneering efforts:**
- “Professor Gilbert went to Greece in 1890-91. That's how he earned the name of the first black archeologist... He was the first professionally trained African American archeologist and one of the very first Americans to do work in Greece.”

6. **On the duality of Gilbert’s career:**
- “He balanced these two commitments. On the one hand, he was a teacher... On the other hand, he was a minister and missionary.”

7. **On the broader historical convideo of African American education post-Civil War:**
- “I hope that reading my book will help people to understand the great flowering of African American education after the Civil War.”

8. **On the impact of Jim Crow and racial challenges:**
- “As that promise began to fall away, and as the depths of the Jim Crow regime really took hold... he continued to do his best and engage in interracial cooperation.”

9. **On navigating racial challenges:**
- “He was a man of deep faith and hope... he maintained this deep faith that he was able to bring to everything he did until the very end of his life.”

10. **On connections with the local community:**
- “Any future research in this field... needs to be respectful of, engaged with, connected to the local community.”

11. **On the significance of future research:**
- “Future researchers should always keep in mind that what we do as researchers is a public endeavor.”

These quotes encapsulate the essence of Wesley Gilbert’s life, the author's motivations, challenges faced in the research, and the historical and cultural significance of Gilbert's contributions.

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Wesley Gilbert was born in 1863 and died in 1923.

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He was a classical scholar of Greek

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and Latin, an educator, a Christian missionary,

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and a pioneer in,

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in African American education in the post-Civil War period.

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Uh, and knowing that,

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what were my motivations for this book?

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Um, I am an, actually an ancient historian.

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My main fields are ancient Greece and ancient Iran,

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and I stumbled into this topic accidentally.

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Uh, I was working on another project,

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and I became frustrated with that project.

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I was looking around for something new.

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Uh, I discovered Professor Gilbert's name.

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Uh, and I became curious

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because at the time,

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I knew almost nothing about African American history,

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in the 19th and 20th century.

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So my motivations, I think, were looking for something new.

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But as I went on, I became drawn into a world I,

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I just had no idea about,

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and I made personal connections with people

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in Professor Gilbert's hometown.

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Uh, I discovered sources that had never been found,

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and it became a very personally,

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personally meaningful project for me.

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Undertaking research for a book on,

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on John Wesley Gilbert was quite, challenging

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because the archives of his school,

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a school named Payne College in Augusta, Georgia,

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had been destroyed by a fire in 1968.

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So, if you were a historian looking to write a,

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a biography and a history of this pioneering scholar,

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you would go to those archive source,

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but they no longer existed.

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Uh, and that's one reason I think people had

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not done research.

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Uh, on the topic of Professor Gilbert, you know,

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there had been some work, but the lack of material seemed

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to present a problem.

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Uh, but as I mentioned, I'm an ancient historian,

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and we are very used to working with fragments

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and evidence that does not exist.

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Uh, and so I applied my ancient history research skills,

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to looking for other, other sources,

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and those included at the traditional archives.

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I mean, Payne College does have some materials surviving

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that the archivist had had very carefully, preserved.

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There were lots of archival materials in other, places.

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Professor Gilbert went to Greece in 18 90, 91.

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That's how he earned the name

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of the first black archeologist.

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He was the first professionally trained African American

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archeologists and one of the very first Americans

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to do work, in Greece.

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So various schools, the American School

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of Classical Studies in Athens,

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Cambridge University, brown University.

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I could go on. They preserved documents about,

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about his work.

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Uh, and then a really important component for me was going

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to Augusta, Georgia, professor Gilbert's hometown,

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and making connections there,

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because Augusta has a very strong African-American

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historical and cultural community.

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And I made connections with those folks,

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and they helped me to find material I could not have

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found, otherwise.

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And I don't have space here to name all of them,

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but I would particularly highlight, Dr.

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Mallory Miler, who is the, the historian

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of Payne College in Augusta.

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Uh, he and I have become very close,

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and someone who doesn't actually live in, in, Payne,

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is Reverend Ec Calhoun, who lives in North Carolina.

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Uh, sorry. Uh, and, sorry, Ashley Calhoun.

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Issa Calhoun was his father.

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And Ley Calhoun was the last white president

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of Payne College, which is a historically black

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college or university.

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So, to this question of how do I undertake research,

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I used my ancient history skills to look for fragments

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and to assemble the network around Professor Gilbert.

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So even though his, the majority of his,

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of his writing does not survive, I was able to find bits

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and pieces here, here and there.

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And one last component I would add is that, you know,

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in the recent years, the ability to do digital searching,

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newspapers, journals, other online publications,

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enabled me to find fragments of Professor Gilbert's writing

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that had been quoted by other people,

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and then the originals were lost.

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But I was able to find the quotations, including letters

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that he wrote from Greece,

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letters he wrote from Africa, and elsewhere.

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So I used every single method I could from being on the

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ground to working in the traditional archives,

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to making connections with the local community,

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and just never giving up until I found

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as much as I possibly could.

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John Wesley Gilbert was born, about 1863,

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and that made him part of the first post Civil War,

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post-slavery generation of young African Americans.

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And in one respect,

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his early education upbringing was pretty typical.

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That is like many, many, many, young African Americans.

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He wanted to, get an education.

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He wanted to learn as much as he could to take advantage of

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what had previously been denied,

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to black people in the United States.

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Uh, so in that respect, John, we,

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Gilbert was entirely typical

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of the post civil war generation.

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And in fact, the types of things he was studying,

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classical Greek and Latin, were also pretty typical of what,

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young black people were learning,

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and actually older black people

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as well in the post Civil War period,

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because in that time, Greek

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and Latin were considered the standard for higher education

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to be an educated person.

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You read the Greek

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and Latin Classics, along with, of course, mathematics

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and English literature,

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and other parts of a classical liberal arts, curriculum.

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So in all these respects, Gilbert was, you know,

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he was following a train that had been set by,

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older black scholars in the post Civil War era.

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Um, but he seems to have had an extraordinary talent,

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for learning and for languages.

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Um, he would eventually become skilled, not only in Greek

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and Latin, but he spoke French and German.

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He studied biblical Hebrew.

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He learned two languages of, of Africa,

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that have spoken in the Congo, today.

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But those early years gave him a foundation, for going

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through primary school, middle school.

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And eventually he was able, to

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do advanced schooling at Payne College in Augusta,

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and then at Brown University in

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Providence, Rhode Island.

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So it began someplace that many,

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many people began in that period.

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But he was, through his own skills, his gifts,

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and the help of others, he was able to,

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to blaze a new path.

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Here, it helps to understand that his school,

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it was when it, and he first began teaching, there,

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it was called Pain Institute Today,

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it's called Pain College.

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And Pain Institute was a very unusual school in the,

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the Southern United States,

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because it was a cooperative foundation of black Methodists

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and white Methodists working, working together.

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So first of all, he was working at a school,

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which was quite unusual.

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And in fact, his mentor

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and his closest colleague, George Williams Walker,

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was a white Methodist, minister.

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So the two of them, along with the other faculty

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and students at Payne,

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were really working in a very unique, unique space.

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And throughout his career at Payne, which ran from 1888

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until about 1920,

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Gilbert did balance these two commitments.

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On the one hand, he was a teacher at Payne College.

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He taught the languages that I mentioned earlier.

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He taught Greek every year.

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Uh, he taught Latin less frequently, German and French.

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He taught, he taught quite, quite a bit.

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He also taught things such as English literature.

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He taught, courses that he had taken

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as a student at Brown University, such as surveying

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and geology,

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because he was the only person in Payne College

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who had the knowledge of those, of those, subjects.

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Uh, but as I mentioned, Payne was also a Methodist school.

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And so Gilbert became a minister,

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in the Black Methodist denomination that had,

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was a co-sponsor of the school.

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And that denomination is called the, the, today,

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it's called the Christian Methodist Episcopal

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Church, or CME.

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When Gilbert was alive,

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it was called the Colored Methodist Episcopal Church,

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still, the CME.

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So he was a minister in the CME.

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Uh, he would eventually, in his later life,

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he was considered to be for a bishop, bishop position,

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in the CME.

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And it was as a minister for the CME that he undertook,

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the other famous part of his career, which was,

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a interracial mission to

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what was then the Belgian Congo in 19 11, 19 12.

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So he and a white Methodist, bishop,

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Walter Russell Lambeth went to, went to

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what was then the Belgian Congo on an interracial mission.

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So he had these two worlds, the world of teaching,

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and the world of being a minister and a missionary.

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And you might think that these were contradictory,

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but in fact, they, they complimented each other.

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Um, for example, people who study Greek

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and Roman classics might think

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that the main things you learn Greek

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to read are the classical text.

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But for many African Americans in the post Civil War era,

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the key thing to read was the Bible.

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To read the Bible in Greek was a major reason

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for learning Greek.

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So when he was teaching Greek,

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Gilbert was not only teaching the classics,

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but he was teaching how to read, the Bible.

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So those two things, in that one specific instance,

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those two areas, crossed over

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later in his career at Payne.

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As he became more involved in the, the, the prospects

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for this mission in the Belgian Congo, he actually helped

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to develop a, a ministerial training program at,

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at Payne College, in the hopes that if

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the Methodist Church could establish its mission in the

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Belgian Congo, there would be a, a need

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for African American ministers to go to the Congo.

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Uh, unfortunately, in the end, the,

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the white Methodist decided not

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to let the black Methodist join them.

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So, even though Gilbert pioneered the mission there,

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he was never able to send,

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send missionaries from Payne to join that mission.

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Uh, so if you look at his career, you know, back

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and forth, he, he, he, he manages to balance his balance,

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the teaching in the ministry,

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and, these two aspects intertwined throughout his life.

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And this is, I think, a nice lead into,

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you asked a second question,

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how did he navigate the racial and academic challenges?

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He, he encountered?

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Now, you know, you, we have to remember

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that this was the post Civil War period

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that he's growing up in.

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And then in the, the, the turn in the 1880s

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and 1890s to the really low of Jim Crow, the Jim Crow era,

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and the, the, the low, low, low depths of the segregation,

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regime, he, he begins his life in an era of promise

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where black folks think now we are free.

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We have the chance to, gain an education.

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Opportunities will open, in Augusta, Georgia.

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Uh, blacks who lived in Augusta,

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Georgia often commented in the 1870s

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and eighties that they received support,

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from whites in achieving their aspirations.

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So in those early years, there was a lot of promise.

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Uh, and Gilbert,

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although he faced racial challenges from the very beginning,

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public schools were segregated.

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For example, there was great prejudice,

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there was systematic racism.

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Um, Gilbert was able to find mentors both black

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and white, who helped him to, to advance.

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And that was true in his early schooling

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with George Williams Walker at, at Payne College,

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and then at Brown University, where he had a number of,

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of excellent professors.

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Uh, and then once he entered his professional life in the

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1890s, that as that promise began to fall away,

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and as the depths of the Jim Crow regime really took hold

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and gripped, America, Gilbert continued to do his best,

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to educate students to cross racial lines

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and to engage in interracial cooperation, despite the,

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the deep, deep problems that existed,

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and throughout his life.

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If I had to say one thing about how did he navigate these,

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he, he was a man of deep faith

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and hope that he experienced personal racism

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and the threat of violence in his life.

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Um, he experienced, white people

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who did not believe that he was capable of doing

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what he did, but he never became, embittered

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or angry,

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or, turned away from his belief

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that things could be made better.

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I mean, it's really something that's quite,

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quite striking, because I don't know

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how I could have done the same thing in the position

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that he was, that he, he maintained this deep faith

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that he was able to, bring to everything he did

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until the very end of, end of his, of his life.

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That doesn't mean it was easy for him.

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Um, you know, this was personally, personally difficult,

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and difficult for his family,

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but he never lost until the end of his life.

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That kind of faith, in, in people working together

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and transcending the racism that was embedded,

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in American life.

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I hope that readers understand the many different,

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spheres, to which Gilbert contributed.

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We talked about his early education upbringing.

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So I hope that reading my book will help, people

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to understand the great flowering

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of African American education after the, the Civil War.

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This is really, it's an incredible thing,

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in United States history.

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This, this post Civil War flowering of education.

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It's a, a greatest generation kind of moment.

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And, you know, I began

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by saying I didn't know anything about it,

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but I, I truly, truly, inspired by the, the work

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that people did in that post civil war era.

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So I hope that re that, that people understand that,

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that this great flowering of education.

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Um, second, I hope that, readers, understand the,

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the important role that John Muley Gilbert had

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in the development of archeology in Greece, especially

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by us archeologists,

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and I I briefly mentioned this early on, you know,

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John Muley Gilbert was one of the first 50 Americans

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of any race, of any ethnicity, of any background,

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of any gender, to go to Greece and do professional research.

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Uh, he excavated,

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he also conducted archeological survey,

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which means walking across the landscape, looking for,

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looking for remains on the surface.

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He really was a pioneering figure alongside,

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his classmates in, in, in that year of 18 90, 91.

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So if you're interested in archeology,

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I hope you under appreciate how much he contributed to

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that early world when, when archeology was really,

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scientific archeology was really in,

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its just in its beginnings.

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So that's, that's another, part of it.

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Um, a third aspect is his Congo mission

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and the role of African Americans, in making cultural

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and religious connections

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with Africa in the 19th and 20th century.

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And here, Gilbert is part of a, of a much bigger story.

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There are other black missionaries from other denominations,

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who are in many different parts of Africa, and,

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and he's just one part of that big story of a connection,

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between African Americans, and,

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and Africa, which is a really fascinating, fascinating,

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and important, and important story.

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So I hope readers get, to get that.

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And then maybe to close off, you know, I, in my book, I,

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I really tried to give a portrait of a, of a person,

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a person whose story was, was lost,

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because of the destruction of archives,

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because people turn their attention away from him.

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Uh, but who, of someone who was a,

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a true pioneer in many different fields.

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So I hope that readers will kind of get a sense of Gilbert

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as, as a person, as a, a good father.

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You know, he had four children, one of whom died very,

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very young, as a very warm

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and caring person, as a truly skilled scholar.

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I mean, I mentioned his linguistic,

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li linguistic skills, a leader in his community,

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and someone who just in the face of,

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of a really difficult societal system

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that he did not give up.

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Uh, give up hope. Um,

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so I hope all those things come together.

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In fact, I wrap that up in a, you know,

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where should we go in the future?

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Uh, there are many different, there are many different areas

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for future research.

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Uh, that Gilbert story opens up

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because there are other African American scholars

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of this era whose works remain, to be studied.

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There are are things as simple as the catalogs

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and the, the records of historically black colleges

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and universities that deserve to be, to be studied.

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And, you know, I'm not the

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only person working on this field.

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This is becoming a, it's actually been for a while,

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a an area of, of intense research.

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Um, even things as basic as preserving documents

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that would otherwise be lost.

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Um, if you are an HBCU, your budget is gonna be less than a,

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I don't know, a Harvard or a Princeton or Yale, right?

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So you're not gonna have the money to digitize.

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So that's a thing that, an endeavor that,

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that we can, can do.

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Um, and then, you know, here I am a scholar

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of ancient Greece and ancient Iran,

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and I've written a book on African American history.

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I think we should see more future research where we connect

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us historians and historians of the ancient world,

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because I think my story is a good example of

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what can happen when you bring an unusual perspective.

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And I'd actually like to have the US historians come back

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and look at, you know, ancient Greece

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or ancient Iran as well.

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So that kind of future cooperative research, is, is,

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is an important thing.

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And maybe one last, last thing is to say is that, you know,

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I mentioned at the start that much

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of my work was made possible by connections

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with the community of Augusta.

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And any future research in this field

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or another field needs to be respectful of, engaged with,

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connected to the local community.

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I mean, this is, I've said this

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before in other places,

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this is John Wesley Gilbert's story is the story of,

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of the people of Payne College,

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of the African American community of Augusta.

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And it just kind of fell to me,

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that it was given to me to tell the story.

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But it's really, it's the story

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That belongs to pain and, and to Augusta.

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Uh, and so future researchers should always keep

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that in mind, that you know, what we do as researchers,

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as a public, endeavor.

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Just in May, I was able to go to Augusta.

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Uh, we were able

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to dedicate a bronze historical marker for Professor Gilbert.

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It was a very powerful, very powerful moment.

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So, that future research should always be

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engaged with a community.

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Um, I, but I hope that's not too many things for a reader

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to take from, from, from the book.

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Um, and I'm sure there are other things that,

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that people who read it will, will find as they explore.

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Explore John Wesley Gilbert's life.

Uncovering the Legacy of Wesley Gilbert: A Historian's Journey

00:00:00 - Wesley Gilbert was born in 1863 and died in 1923. He was a classical scholar of Greek and Latin, an educator, a Christian missionary, and a pioneer in, in African American education in the post-Civil War period. and knowing that, what were my motivations for this book? I am an, actually an ancient historian. My main fields are ancient Greece and ancient Iran, and I stumbled into this topic accidentally. I was working on another project,

00:00:33 - I was looking around for something new. I discovered Professor Gilbert's name. and I became curious because at the time, I knew almost nothing about African American history, in the 19th and 20th century. So my motivations, I think, were looking for something new. But as I went on, I became drawn into a world I, I just had no idea about, and I made personal connections with people in Professor Gilbert's hometown. I discovered sources that had never been found,

00:01:04 - personally meaningful project for me. Undertaking research for a book on, on John Wesley Gilbert was quite, challenging because the archives of his school, a school named Payne College in Augusta, Georgia, had been destroyed by a fire in 1968. So, if you were a historian looking to write a, a biography and a history of this pioneering scholar, you would go to those archive source, but they no longer existed. and that's one reason I think people had not done research.

Uncovering the Legacy of John Wesley Gilbert: Research Challenges and Community Connections

00:01:37 - there had been some work, but the lack of material seemed to present a problem. but as I mentioned, I'm an ancient historian, and we are very used to working with fragments and evidence that does not exist. and so I applied my ancient history research skills, to looking for other, other sources, and those included at the traditional archives. I mean, Payne College does have some materials surviving that the archivist had had very carefully, preserved.

00:02:10 - Professor Gilbert went to Greece in 18 90, 91. That's how he earned the name of the first black archeologist. He was the first professionally trained African American archeologists and one of the very first Americans to do work, in Greece. So various schools, the American School of Classical Studies in Athens, Cambridge University, brown University. I could go on. They preserved documents about, about his work. and then a really important component for me was going

00:02:42 - and making connections there, because Augusta has a very strong African-American historical and cultural community. And I made connections with those folks, and they helped me to find material I could not have found, otherwise. And I don't have space here to name all of them, but I would particularly highlight, Dr. Mallory Miler, who is the, the historian of Payne College in Augusta. he and I have become very close, and someone who doesn't actually live in, in, Payne,

Uncovering Fragments of Gilbert's Legacy

00:03:13 - sorry. and, sorry, Ashley Calhoun. Issa Calhoun was his father. And Ley Calhoun was the last white president of Payne College, which is a historically black college or university. So, to this question of how do I undertake research, I used my ancient history skills to look for fragments and to assemble the network around Professor Gilbert. So even though his, the majority of his, of his writing does not survive, I was able to find bits

00:03:45 - And one last component I would add is that, you know, in the recent years, the ability to do digital searching, newspapers, journals, other online publications, enabled me to find fragments of Professor Gilbert's writing that had been quoted by other people, and then the originals were lost. But I was able to find the quotations, including letters that he wrote from Greece, letters he wrote from Africa, and elsewhere. So I used every single method I could from being on the ground to working in the traditional archives,

00:04:16 - and just never giving up until I found as much as I possibly could. John Wesley Gilbert was born, about 1863, and that made him part of the first post Civil War, post-slavery generation of young African Americans. And in one respect, his early education upbringing was pretty typical. That is like many, many, many, young African Americans. He wanted to, get an education. He wanted to learn as much as he could to take advantage of

John Wesley Gilbert: A Path to Education and Language Mastery in Post-Civil War America

00:04:47 - to black people in the United States. so in that respect, John, we, Gilbert was entirely typical of the post civil war generation. And in fact, the types of things he was studying, classical Greek and Latin, were also pretty typical of what, young black people were learning, and actually older black people as well in the post Civil War period, because in that time, Greek and Latin were considered the standard for higher education to be an educated person.

00:05:16 - and Latin Classics, along with, of course, mathematics and English literature, and other parts of a classical liberal arts, curriculum. So in all these respects, Gilbert was, you know, he was following a train that had been set by, older black scholars in the post Civil War era. but he seems to have had an extraordinary talent, for learning and for languages. he would eventually become skilled, not only in Greek and Latin, but he spoke French and German. He studied biblical Hebrew.

00:05:49 - that have spoken in the Congo, today. But those early years gave him a foundation, for going through primary school, middle school. And eventually he was able, to do advanced schooling at Payne College in Augusta, and then at Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island. So it began someplace that many, many people began in that period. But he was, through his own skills, his gifts, and the help of others, he was able to, to blaze a new path.

John Wesley Gilbert: A Pioneering Educator at Payne College

00:06:20 - it was when it, and he first began teaching, there, it was called Pain Institute Today, it's called Pain College. And Pain Institute was a very unusual school in the, the Southern United States, because it was a cooperative foundation of black Methodists and white Methodists working, working together. So first of all, he was working at a school, which was quite unusual. And in fact, his mentor and his closest colleague, George Williams Walker, was a white Methodist, minister.

00:06:51 - and students at Payne, were really working in a very unique, unique space. And throughout his career at Payne, which ran from 1888 until about 1920, Gilbert did balance these two commitments. On the one hand, he was a teacher at Payne College. He taught the languages that I mentioned earlier. He taught Greek every year. he taught Latin less frequently, German and French. He taught, he taught quite, quite a bit. He also taught things such as English literature.

00:07:22 - as a student at Brown University, such as surveying and geology, because he was the only person in Payne College who had the knowledge of those, of those, subjects. but as I mentioned, Payne was also a Methodist school. And so Gilbert became a minister, in the Black Methodist denomination that had, was a co-sponsor of the school. And that denomination is called the, the, today, it's called the Christian Methodist Episcopal

John Wesley Gilbert: Ministerial Duality and Mission to the Congo

00:07:53 - When Gilbert was alive, it was called the Colored Methodist Episcopal Church, still, the CME. So he was a minister in the CME. he would eventually, in his later life, he was considered to be for a bishop, bishop position, in the CME. And it was as a minister for the CME that he undertook, the other famous part of his career, which was, a interracial mission to what was then the Belgian Congo in 19 11, 19 12. So he and a white Methodist, bishop,

00:08:27 - what was then the Belgian Congo on an interracial mission. So he had these two worlds, the world of teaching, and the world of being a minister and a missionary. And you might think that these were contradictory, but in fact, they, they complimented each other. for example, people who study Greek and Roman classics might think that the main things you learn Greek to read are the classical text. But for many African Americans in the post Civil War era,

00:08:56 - To read the Bible in Greek was a major reason for learning Greek. So when he was teaching Greek, Gilbert was not only teaching the classics, but he was teaching how to read, the Bible. So those two things, in that one specific instance, those two areas, crossed over later in his career at Payne. As he became more involved in the, the, the prospects for this mission in the Belgian Congo, he actually helped to develop a, a ministerial training program at, at Payne College, in the hopes that if

John Wesley Gilbert: Navigating Racial Challenges and Missionary Aspirations

00:09:31 - Belgian Congo, there would be a, a need for African American ministers to go to the Congo. unfortunately, in the end, the, the white Methodist decided not to let the black Methodist join them. So, even though Gilbert pioneered the mission there, he was never able to send, send missionaries from Payne to join that mission. so if you look at his career, you know, back and forth, he, he, he, he manages to balance his balance, the teaching in the ministry,

00:10:02 - And this is, I think, a nice lead into, you asked a second question, how did he navigate the racial and academic challenges? He, he encountered? Now, you know, you, we have to remember that this was the post Civil War period that he's growing up in. And then in the, the, the turn in the 1880s and 1890s to the really low of Jim Crow, the Jim Crow era, and the, the, the low, low, low depths of the segregation, regime, he, he begins his life in an era of promise

00:10:34 - We have the chance to, gain an education. Opportunities will open, in Augusta, Georgia. blacks who lived in Augusta, Georgia often commented in the 1870s and eighties that they received support, from whites in achieving their aspirations. So in those early years, there was a lot of promise. and Gilbert, although he faced racial challenges from the very beginning, public schools were segregated. For example, there was great prejudice, there was systematic racism.

Navigating Racism: Faith and Hope in John Wesley Gilbert's Life

00:11:06 - and white, who helped him to, to advance. And that was true in his early schooling with George Williams Walker at, at Payne College, and then at Brown University, where he had a number of, of excellent professors. and then once he entered his professional life in the 1890s, that as that promise began to fall away, and as the depths of the Jim Crow regime really took hold and gripped, America, Gilbert continued to do his best,

00:11:37 - and to engage in interracial cooperation, despite the, the deep, deep problems that existed, and throughout his life. If I had to say one thing about how did he navigate these, he, he was a man of deep faith and hope that he experienced personal racism and the threat of violence in his life. he experienced, white people who did not believe that he was capable of doing

00:12:09 - or angry, or, turned away from his belief that things could be made better. I mean, it's really something that's quite, quite striking, because I don't know how I could have done the same thing in the position that he was, that he, he maintained this deep faith that he was able to, bring to everything he did until the very end of, end of his, of his life. That doesn't mean it was easy for him. you know, this was personally, personally difficult, and difficult for his family,

Exploring Faith and the Legacy of John Wesley Gilbert

00:12:39 - That kind of faith, in, in people working together and transcending the racism that was embedded, in American life. I hope that readers understand the many different, spheres, to which Gilbert contributed. We talked about his early education upbringing. So I hope that reading my book will help, people to understand the great flowering of African American education after the, the Civil War. This is really, it's an incredible thing,

00:13:08 - This, this post Civil War flowering of education. It's a, a greatest generation kind of moment. And, you know, I began by saying I didn't know anything about it, but I, I truly, truly, inspired by the, the work that people did in that post civil war era. So I hope that re that, that people understand that, that this great flowering of education. second, I hope that, readers, understand the, the important role that John Muley Gilbert had in the development of archeology in Greece, especially by us archeologists,

00:13:41 - John Muley Gilbert was one of the first 50 Americans of any race, of any ethnicity, of any background, of any gender, to go to Greece and do professional research. he excavated, he also conducted archeological survey, which means walking across the landscape, looking for, looking for remains on the surface. He really was a pioneering figure alongside, his classmates in, in, in that year of 18 90, 91. So if you're interested in archeology,

Pioneering Connections: The Legacy of John Wesley Gilbert

00:14:11 - that early world when, when archeology was really, scientific archeology was really in, its just in its beginnings. So that's, that's another, part of it. a third aspect is his Congo mission and the role of African Americans, in making cultural and religious connections with Africa in the 19th and 20th century. And here, Gilbert is part of a, of a much bigger story. There are other black missionaries from other denominations,

00:14:42 - and he's just one part of that big story of a connection, between African Americans, and, and Africa, which is a really fascinating, fascinating, and important, and important story. So I hope readers get, to get that. And then maybe to close off, you know, I, in my book, I, I really tried to give a portrait of a, of a person, a person whose story was, was lost, because of the destruction of archives,

00:15:15 - but who, of someone who was a, a true pioneer in many different fields. So I hope that readers will kind of get a sense of Gilbert as, as a person, as a, a good father. You know, he had four children, one of whom died very, very young, as a very warm and caring person, as a truly skilled scholar. I mean, I mentioned his linguistic, li linguistic skills, a leader in his community, and someone who just in the face of,

Exploring Future Research Opportunities in African American Scholarship

00:15:46 - that he did not give up. give up hope. so I hope all those things come together. In fact, I wrap that up in a, you know, where should we go in the future? there are many different, there are many different areas for future research. that Gilbert story opens up because there are other African American scholars of this era whose works remain, to be studied. There are are things as simple as the catalogs and the, the records of historically black colleges

00:16:17 - And, you know, I'm not the only person working on this field. This is becoming a, it's actually been for a while, a an area of, of intense research. even things as basic as preserving documents that would otherwise be lost. if you are an HBCU, your budget is gonna be less than a, I don't know, a Harvard or a Princeton or Yale, right? So you're not gonna have the money to digitize. So that's a thing that, an endeavor that, that we can, can do.

00:16:47 - of ancient Greece and ancient Iran, and I've written a book on African American history. I think we should see more future research where we connect us historians and historians of the ancient world, because I think my story is a good example of what can happen when you bring an unusual perspective. And I'd actually like to have the US historians come back and look at, you know, ancient Greece or ancient Iran as well. So that kind of future cooperative research, is, is, is an important thing.

Community Engagement in Historical Research

00:17:17 - I mentioned at the start that much of my work was made possible by connections with the community of Augusta. And any future research in this field or another field needs to be respectful of, engaged with, connected to the local community. I mean, this is, I've said this before in other places, this is John Wesley Gilbert's story is the story of, of the people of Payne College, of the African American community of Augusta. And it just kind of fell to me,

00:17:47 - But it's really, it's the story That belongs to pain and, and to Augusta. and so future researchers should always keep that in mind, that you know, what we do as researchers, as a public, endeavor. Just in May, I was able to go to Augusta. we were able to dedicate a bronze historical marker for Professor Gilbert. It was a very powerful, very powerful moment. So, that future research should always be engaged with a community. I, but I hope that's not too many things for a reader

00:18:23 - and I'm sure there are other things that, that people who read it will, will find as they explore. Explore John Wesley Gilbert's life.

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