The University of South Carolina invites the public to honor Richard T. Greener, the university’s first African-American professor, Monday, Jan. 30.

The university will commemorate Greener on his 173rd birthday at 4 p.m. in the program room of the Hollings Special Collections Library. A 2-foot model of a statue of Greener will be unveiled. The memorial statue, which will be located outside the university’s Thomas Cooper Library, will be unveiled this fall. The commemoration on Jan. 30 is free and will include a birthday cake and refreshments.

Greener was a pioneer. The first African-American to graduate from Harvard University, at his time he was as prominent a national figure as Booker T. Washington, Frederick Douglass or W.E.B. Du Bois. He immersed himself at Carolina, teaching classics, mathematics and constitutional history as the university’s first African-American professor while serving as the first librarian to implement a modern catalog system for the university’s then-27,000 volumes.

His commitment to equal rights and social justice was further fueled by his earning of a law degree from Carolina and admittance to the South Carolina Bar.

For more information, call 803-777-3235.