Frank M. Snowden, Jr.

Frank M. Snowden, Jr. (July 17, 1911 – February 18, 2007), was an American Professor Emeritus of Classics at Howard University, and one of the foremost authorities on blacks in classical antiquity.

Snowden was born in York County, Virginia. His father was an Army colonel. He graduated from Boston Latin School and earned undergraduate and doctoral degrees from Harvard University. He taught classics at Georgetown University, Vassar College, and Mary Washington College. He was dean of the College of Liberal Arts at Howard University, and was the first honoree in the Howard University Libraries' "Excellence at Howard" program.

Snowden was largely known for his studies of black people in the ancient world. He documented that in ancient Rome and Greece racial prejudice was not an issue. Much of this, according to Snowden, is because most of the blacks they encountered were not slaves. Most slaves in the Roman Empire were white. Most of the blacks they met were warriors, statesmen, and mercenaries. Therefore, blacks were not subjected to the racism of modern civilization. He studied ancient art and literature, and he found evidence that blacks were able to co-exist with the Greeks and Romans.

He served as a member of the U.S. delegation to UNESCO in Paris, as a cultural attaché to the American Embassy in Rome, and as a specialist lecturer for the United States Department of State.

His many books include "Blacks in Antiquity: Ethiopians in the Greco-Roman Experience" (1970), which received the Charles J. Goodwin Award of Merit of the American Philological Association, "The Image of the Black in Western Art I: From the Pharaohs to the Fall of the Roman Empire", which he co-authored (1976), and "Before Color Prejudice: The Ancient View of Blacks" (1983).

In 2003, Snowden was honored at the White House as a recipient of the National Humanities Medal.

References

* [http://www.neh.gov/news/archive/20031114.html National Endowment for the Humanities; President Bush Awards 2003 Humanities Medals]
* [http://www.neh.gov/news/humanities/2004-01/medals.html#snowden Frank Snowden, Jr.: Transcending Prejudice] , "Humanities", January/February 2004, Volume 25/Number 1
* [http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/02/21/AR2007022101989.html Obituary, "Washington Post", February 22, 2007]
* [http://www.nytimes.com/2007/02/28/obituaries/28snowden.html?ex=1330318800&en=4edb139ee1b289dc&ei=5088&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss]