Blacks at Harvard: A Documentary History of African-American Experience At Harvard and Radcliffe

CLEMENT G. MORGAN

CLEMENT G. MORGA N Clement Garnet t Morga n wa s bor n i n Staffor d County , Virginia , o n 9 January 1859 . Hi s slav e parents , o n bein g emancipated , move d t o Washington, where their son attended high school. Morga n then worked as a barber an d went t o St. Louis t o teach school for fou r years . Cravin g a college education, he spent two years at Boston Latin School as preparation for enterin g Harvard a t the age of 27. Barberin g and substantial scholar ships covered mos t of his expenses. A s a junior h e won first priz e in the annual Boylsto n orator y contes t (th e secon d priz e goin g t o hi s blac k classmate W.E.B . D u Bois). H e receive d hi s bachelor' s degre e i n 1890 , proceeding directly to Harvard Law School, from which he was graduated in 1893—the school's thir d blac k graduat e an d th e firs t o f hi s rac e t o hol d degrees from both the College and Law School. For the rest of his life he resided in Cambridge and maintaine d a law practice in th e sam e Boston offic e a t 3 9 Court Street . H e was active i n Republican politic s and, elected from a n almost all-white ward, served on the Cambridg e Commo n Counci l i n 189 5 and 189 6 and o n th e Boar d of Aldermen in 1898 and 1899 , but thrice was an unsuccessful aspiran t to the state legislature. Eve r the agitator, he was in 190 3 largely responsible fo r the closing of a segregated schoo l fo r 3 3 colored childre n i n th e western Massachusetts town of Sheffield, an d in 1905 joined Du Bois as a founding member of the Niagara Movement and its successor, the NAACP. H e died in Cambridge on 1 June 1929. Clement Morgan in 1890 Clement G. Morgan 61 Harvard's Negro Orator CHOSEN BY THE SENIOR CLASS IN PREFERENCE TO AN "ARISTOCRAT1 HIGH HONORS FOR THE BARBER STUDENT , SON OF AN EX-SLAVE Clement Garnett Morgan Has Striven Diligently for an Education and His Classmate s i n th e Universit y Confe r Uniqu e Distinctio n Upo n Him—Elected by a Bare Majority of One Vote in a Hot Contest . [Special to the World] Boston, Oct. 20—It is learned on good authority that the color line was drawn in the case of the colored student, Clement Garnett Morgan , who was chosen clas s orator a t Harvard , a s tol d i n to-day' s World. The members of the class, many of whom were seen to-night , positively refuse to talk about the proceedings of the meeting [16 Oct.] at which the colored student was elected. Th e meeting was secret and only the bare result of the election, without an y statement a s to the number o f vote s cas t fo r eithe r candidate , wa s give n t o th e press . However, it is certain that Morgan was elected by a majority o f one vote in a total vote cast of over 250. The other officers wer e elected on a larger margin, but the real excitement and the cause of the prolongation of the meeting until the hour of midnight was the question whether Harvard would choose the colored man . Whe n the vote was announced i t is understood ther e was a call for a recount, whic h was made amid intens e excitement . The opponents of Morgan were crestfallen when the tellers made the announcement tha t Morga n ha d just on e vote ove r hi s competitor . The colored man, on the other hand, received the warm congratulations of his supporters. Hi s following did not include the wealthy and aristocratic elemen t whic h wa s represented b y a candidate o f thei r own, whose identity, owing to the peculiar circumstances of the case, 62 Clement G. Morgan is one of the things to be kept from publication. Th e supporters of this candidate made a great effort...