Frank M. Snowden Jr.

Frank M. Snowden Jr.
Photographed in the 1940s
Born	July 17, 1911 York County, Virginia, U.S.
Died	February 18, 2007 (2007-02-19) (aged 95) Washington, D.C., U.S.
Occupation(s)	Classical scholar Cultural attaché
Spouse	Elaine Hill Snowden ​ ​ (m. 1935; died 2005)​
Children	Frank M. Snowden III [de] and Jane Alice Snowden Lepscky
Awards	National Humanities Medal (2003)
Academic background
Alma mater	Boston Latin School Harvard University
Thesis	De Servis Libertisque Pompeianis ("On Slaves and Freedmen in Pompeii") (1944)
Academic work
Institutions	Virginia State College Spelman College Howard University

Frank M. Snowden Jr. (July 17, 1911 – February 18, 2007), was an American historian and classicist, best known for his study of black people in classical antiquity. He was a Distinguished Professor emeritus of classics at Howard University. He also served as a delegate to UNESCO and as a cultural attaché to the United States embassy in Rome.

Snowden was born in rural York County, Virginia, on July 17, 1911, but raised in Boston.^[1][2] He graduated from Boston Latin School and earned undergraduate and doctoral degrees from Harvard University, completing his doctoral degree in 1944.^[1] His thesis was titled De Servis Libertisque Pompeianis.^[3]

After a brief period teaching at Virginia State College and at Spelman College, Snowden moved to Howard University, where he remained the rest of his career. At Howard, he served as chair of the classics department for many years, and was dean of the College of Liberal Arts from 1956 to 1968.^[1][2]

Snowden retired in 1976. In retirement, he taught at Howard as professor emeritus; he also taught at 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.^{[citation needed]}

Snowden's 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, and Before Color Prejudice: The Ancient View of Blacks (1983). He was also a contributor to The Image of the Black in Western Art I: From the Pharaohs to the Fall of the Roman Empire (1976).

Snowden served as a member of the American delegation to UNESCO in Paris, France.^{[citation needed]} He also served as a cultural attaché to the United States Embassy in Rome, under the Eisenhower administration, and as a specialist lecturer for the U.S. State Department.^[2]

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 Africans encountered in Rome were not slaves. Most of the Africans documented in Rome and Greece met were warriors, statesmen, and mercenaries. Therefore, Africans were not subjected to the racism of modern civilization. He studied ancient art and literature, and he found mass evidence Africans were able to co-exist with the Greeks and Romans of the time.

In 2003, Snowden was honored at the White House as a recipient of the National Humanities Medal.^[4] He died of congestive heart failure in Washington, D.C., on February 18, 2007.^[1]

Snowden married Elaine Hill Snowden in 1935, and lived with her in Washington, D.C., until her death in 2005. He was fluent in Latin, Greek, German, French and Italian. His son, Frank M. Snowden III [de], is a professor of twentieth-century Italian history at Yale University.

• Frank M. Snowden Jr. (1970). Blacks in Antiquity: Ethiopians in the Greco-Roman Experience. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Belknap Press. ISBN 0674076265.
• Frank M. Snowden Jr. (1983). Before Color Prejudice: The Ancient View of Blacks. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press. ISBN 0674063813.

• Frank M. Snowden Jr. at the Database of Classical Scholars
• National Endowment for the Humanities (November 14, 2003). "President Bush Awards 2003 Humanities Medals". National Endowment for the Humanities. Archived from the original on November 19, 2003.
• Michael R. Winston (March 11, 2007). "Howard's Unyielding Intellectual". The Washington Post.