{{Short description|American classicist, teacher (1866–1928)}} {{Use mdy dates|date = February 2025}} {{Infobox person | name = Lewis Baxter Moore | image = Lewis Baxter Moore.jpg | other_names = Lewis B. Moore, L.B.Moore | birth_date = September 1, 1866 | birth_place = Huntsville, Alabama, United States | death_date = December 12, 1928 | death_place = Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States | burial_place = Eden Cemetery, Collingdale, Pennsylvania, United States | education = Fisk University (BA, MA),<br /> University of Pennsylvania (PhD) | occupation = Classical philologist, scholar, university teacher, Presbyterian pastor | spouse = Sadie Elizabeth Tanner (m. 1895–), Lavenia E. Waring (m. 1903–)<ref name="Gordon" /> }} '''Lewis Baxter Moore''' (1866–1928) was an American classicist, scholar, university teacher, and Presbyterian pastor. He was the first African American to earn a Doctor of Philosophy degree (PhD) from the University of Pennsylvania.
== Early life and education == Lewis Baxter Moore was born on September 1, 1866, in or near Huntsville, in Madison County Alabama, to parents Rebecca (Beasley or Love) M. and Henry Moore.<ref name="Gordon">{{Cite web |last=Gordon |first=Laura |title=Moore, Lewis Baxter |url=https://dbcs.rutgers.edu/all-scholars/8951-moore-lewis-baxter |access-date=2025-02-05 |website=Database of Classical Scholars |publisher=Rutgers University |language=en-gb}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |last=Savage |first=W. Sherman |author-link=W. Sherman Savage |date=September 3, 1954 |title=Know Your History |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-call-know-your-history/164794500/ |access-date=2025-02-06 |work=The Call |pages=14 |via=Newspapers.com}}</ref>
Moore received a B.A. degree (1889) and a M.A. degree (1893) from Fisk University, a HBCU in Nashville, Tennessee.<ref name="The Center for Hellenic Studies">{{Cite web |title=Black Classicists: A Mural Mosaic |url=https://chs.harvard.edu/permanent-collection/black-classicists/ |access-date=2025-02-05 |website=The Center for Hellenic Studies |publisher=Harvard University |language=en-US}}</ref> His Ph.D. was received in 1896 from the University of Pennsylvania (UPenn), where he was the first African American to earn a Doctor of Philosophy degree (PhD) from the school.<ref name="The Center for Hellenic Studies" /><ref name="Penn Libraries">{{Cite web |title=Lewis Baxter Moore |url=https://archives.upenn.edu/exhibits/penn-people/biography/lewis-baxter-moore/ |access-date=2025-02-05 |website=Penn Libraries, University Archives and Records Center |language=en}}</ref> He graduated from the classics department at UPenn and his dissertation was entitled, “The Stage in Sophocles’ Plays.”<ref name="The Center for Hellenic Studies" /> His dissertation has been lost.<ref name="Gordon" />
== Career == Moore worked at Howard University in Washington, D.C. from 1895 until 1920, and for many years as the Dean at Howard University's Teachers’ College.<ref name="Gordon" /><ref name="Penn Libraries" /><ref>{{Cite book |last=Washington |first=Booker T. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=YQ3EGCbRr6wC&pg=PA36 |title=Booker T. Washington Papers Volume 7: 1903-4. Assistant Editor, Barbara S. Kraft |last2=Harlan |first2=Louis R. |date=1977 |publisher=University of Illinois Press |isbn=978-0-252-00666-1 |pages=36 |language=en |via=Google Books}}</ref> When they lived in Washington, D.C., his niece Sadie T. M. Alexander lived with them.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Giddings |first=Paula |title=In Search of Sisterhood: Delta Sigma Theta and the Challenge of the Black Sorority Movement. |publisher=Harper Collins |year=1988 |edition=3 |location=New York |page=1162}}</ref>
He was a member of the American Philological Association (now Society for Classical Studies), from 1896 to 1907.<ref name="Ronnick">{{Cite web |last=Ronnick |first=Michele Valerie |title=Lewis Baxter Moore, Educator, and Minister born |url=https://aaregistry.org/story/lewis-baxter-moore-educator-and-minister-born/ |website=African American Registry (AARegistry)}}</ref> During these years (1896 to 1907), Moore helped with the establishment of the first "colored" branch of the YMCA in Philadelphia,<ref name="Gordon" /><ref name="Ronnick" /> known as the Christian Street YMCA.
In his later life he became an ordained minister, and for the last three years of his life he was the pastor of the Faith Presbyterian Church in Germantown, Philadelphia.<ref name="Penn Libraries" />
== Death and legacy == He died at the age of 62 on December 12, 1928, in Philadelphia,<ref name="Gordon" /><ref>{{Cite news |date=December 22, 1928 |title=Ex-Howard Dean Buried |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-afro-american-obituary-for-lewis-bax/164794281/ |access-date=2025-02-06 |work=The Afro-American |pages=4 |type=Obituary |via=Newspapers.com}}</ref> and is buried in Eden Cemetery in Collingdale, Pennsylvania.
Moore's work was included in a traveling group exhibition, "12 Black Classicists" (2003–present) presented by Prof. Michele Valerie Ronnick, from Wayne State University in Detroit.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Colby |first=Joy Hakanson |date=2003-09-06 |title=Black Classists Exhibit - 2003 |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/detroit-free-press-black-classists-exhib/47140431/ |access-date=2025-02-06 |work=Detroit Free Press |pages=47 |via=Newspapers.com}}</ref> This exhibition was funded by two grants from the James Loeb Classical Library Foundation at Harvard University, and the exhibition has travelled to 79 locations across the United States, as well as the United Kingdom, and Canada.
== References == {{Reflist}}
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Moore, Lewis Baxter}} Category:1866 births Category:1928 deaths Category:19th-century African-American academics Category:19th-century American academics Category:20th-century African-American academics Category:20th-century American academics Category:African-American Presbyterian ministers Category:19th-century American Presbyterian ministers Category:American Presbyterian ministers Category:Classics educators Category:Fisk University alumni Category:Howard University faculty Category:University of Pennsylvania alumni