Negro Prodigy

An uneducated black boy who lives in Augusta, Georgia, is praised for his amazing mathematical ability.

Robert Gardhire is a Negro, and an uneducated one, but when it comes to figures he can’t be stopped by any mathematician in the world, says the Augusta Chronicle. He is a humble resident of Augusta, and is employed as a laborer at the Interstate Cotton Oil company. In a multiplication Gardhire is as quick as thought. Before the average person can set the figures down with a pencil, Gardhire has given the correct answer, and yet he cannot say how he does it.
He was asked what the sum total of 99 times 67, and without repeating the figures himself Gardhire answered off hand: “6,663.” “How much” asked one, “is 501 times 52?” Without stopping a second Gardhire replied: “16032.” And thus for over half an hour, numbers were thrown at him and he gave the correct multiplication like a flash. In the multiplication of fractions the man is equally proficient, and there seems no limit to his powers, which are almost occult.
Gardhire cannot remember when he first became aware of his power, and does not even know how he discovered it. He says that when figures are given to him he sees their answer immediately. Simply by glancing at a long line of figures he can tell immediately what they sum up.

“Negro Prodigy,” Black Virginia: The Richmond Planet, 1894-1909, accessed February 14, 2026, https://blackvirginia.richmond.edu/items/show/1165.