John Wesley Gilbert, First Black Archaeologist in Greece: A Story You NEED to Hear! As far as Greece, John Wesley Gilbert was the first African American to go to Greece to study archeology, and into the 20th century, he is the only one of whom I'm aware and there were of course many African Americans who went to Greece as travellers, as ministers later as tourists and there are even some expatriates that we know of as early as the 1800s. And in North American archeology you have African Americans participating both as trained archeologists and others who make important discoveries and participate in not only as workers but as people who discover sites #archeology #first #bhm #blackhistorymonth #history #worldhistory