George Washington Henderson was an American theologian and professor who is credited as being the first African American member of Phi Beta Kappa, the nation’s oldest collegiate academic honor society. Henderson was under slavery in Clark County, Virginia, and moved to Vermont before the Civil War ended. When he arrived in Vermont, he could not read or write but desired to attend an academy where he received tutoring. Henderson would overcome those obstacles and graduated at the top of his class from the University of Vermont in 1877 and began working as a principal for several years at schools in Vermont. He continued his studies and earned a Master of Arts degree from the University of Vermont, a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Divinity from Yale University, and became a minister while also teaching courses in theology, Latin, Greek, and ancient literature. While at Yale, Henderson was awarded the Hooker Fellowship for Excellence in Theological Studies. A fellowship for one year after graduating allows that selected student to pursue further studies in theological studies. He chose to spend the year studying in Berlin, Germany.
After leaving Vermont, he continued to teach and became a pastor of a church in New Orleans. He soon became Chair of the Department of Theology at Straight University, a position he held for fourteen years. Straight University was one of the universities that later merged to form Dillard University in 1930. Henderson was also the Dean of Theology at Fisk University in Nashville for 15 years, and later moved to Ohio where he was a professor of Latin, Greek, and Ancient Literature at Wilberforce University until retiring in 1932.
Henderson is most noted for formally speaking out again lynching in the United States. One of his writings was an appeal he titled the "First Memorial Against Lynching." This document was sent to the Louisiana legislature in 1894 and was one of the first formal anti-lynching protests sent to elected officials in the United States.
Today, the University of Vermont has established the George Washington Henderson Fellowship Program in honor of his memory. The program sponsors pre-doctoral and post-doctoral scholars who help advance the strategic vision and academic success goals and contribute to the diversification of their faculty.