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Agents of Change

By Eddy Lentz

The early parts of the 1900s were undoubtedly a trying time for African-Americans in the United States. Racial discrimination was not just common across the country but widely accepted. Yet in the Washington, D.C., area, two remarkable people were laying the groundwork for change.

It would stand to reason that Lucy Diggs Slowe and Edwin Bancroft Henderson may have known each other during their time in the nation’s capital. But even if not, it is hard to imagine that they weren’t admirers of each others' work. Slowe, who earned a master’s degree from Columbia, was at the forefront of change for female African-American students and administrators on college campuses. Henderson, who also received a master’s at Columbia and did graduate work at Harvard, helped dissolve racial boundaries as a scholar and historian, while also fighting on numerous fronts for equal rights for African-Americans.

It would be no stretch to say that Lucy Diggs Slowe was the most influential advocate of change for African-American collegiate females in the first half of the 20th century. Her educational philosophies allowed women not just to succeed in the classroom but also to develop self-determination, respect and the confidence to succeed in a society dominated by white males.

And while she was at it, she also played a little tennis.

Slowe was born on July 4, 1885, in Berryville, Va., to Henry and Fannie Porter Slowe. Losing both parents at a young age, Slowe moved to Lexington, Va., to live with her aunt, Martha Price. The family relocated to Baltimore, Md., where Slowe, then 13 years old, entered the segregated public school system.

Proving to be an excellent student, she graduated second in her class from Baltimore Colored School in 1904 and became the first female graduate of the school to enter Howard University in Washington, D.C. Slowe, who was also the first scholarship recipient from Baltimore Colored School, was a very active member of the undergraduate community at Howard, singing in the university choir, serving as president of the women’s tennis team, and serving as a founding member of the first Greek letter sorority for black women, Alpha Kappa Alpha. It was also at Howard that Slowe got a taste for what would be one of her calling cards – improving the conditions for African-American women in higher education.

Graduating as class valedictorian from Howard in 1908, Slowe accepted a teaching position at Douglass High School in Baltimore. She then made the trek to New York where she attended the Columbia Graduate School of Arts & Science from 1911 to 1915, graduating with an M.A. in October of 1915. She also attended Columbia’s Teacher’s College, taking classes in Student Personnel.

In addition to the high priority Slowe placed on education, she stayed on top of her tennis game at this time. In 1917 she became the first African-American woman to win a national title in any sport when she claimed the first women’s title at the American Tennis Association (ATA) national tournament in Baltimore.

Prior to organization of the ATA, it had been the custom for players from Baltimore, Washington, D.C., New Jersey, Pennsylvania and the New England states to participate in invitational and interstate tournaments. The ATA’s formation in 1916 gave African-Americans the opportunity to participate in competitive organized tennis.

Slowe’s ATA title came in the middle of a stint teaching at Armstrong Manual Training School, one of three D.C. black high schools, where Slowe also served as dean of girls for one year. She then, at the request of the District’s Board of Education, organized and was the principal of the first black junior high school in the Washington area -- Shaw Junior School.

In 1922, Slowe returned to her alma mater, becoming the first dean of women at Howard. Determined to succeed in her new position, Slowe studied the procedures of female deans at other universities and maintained close ties with Columbia’s Dr. Romiett Stevens, who developed the first course for female deans in the United States.

Perhaps the most notable of Slowe’s early achievements at Howard was the establishment of a women’s campus at Howard. Stressing the need for a separated area for female students, Slowe described an area needed by “women students for their physical and social development as well as for the training of their minds.” Her efforts led to the building of three new dormitories for females on the Howard campus.

In the early to mid 1920s great changes were taking pace on the campuses of black colleges and Slowe was at the forefront of ensuring the roles of African-American on these campuses. In 1922 she helped organize and served as the first president of the National Association of College Women (NACW), an organization dedicated to raising the standards in colleges for black women, developing women faculty, and securing scholarships.

The appointment of female deans to African-American colleges was also an important mission of the NACW. Through her experiences as the first formally trained dean of women students, she also attempted to convince college presidents that the position was one to be filled by an education professional and not the typical “matron” that had been filling the role.

She was also forward-thinking in terms of equal rights for men and women, telling the 1923 NACW conference, “An important task of the National Association of College Women is that of educational standards to meet those of the very best institutions in our land. If a college accepts women students and employs women faculty, it should give them the same status as it gives male students and teachers, respectively.”

By the late 1920s, largely through the efforts of Slowe, there were enough African-American female administrators to hold a meeting, and in 1929 Howard hosted the first meeting of the National Association of Women’s Deans and Advisors of Colored Schools (NAWDACS). The forum provided Slowe, who served as the organization’s first president, with the opportunity to outline the changes needed for female administrators on college campuses. Her work on behalf of females was so respected at the time that she was invited to address the predominately white National Association of Women Deans in 1931, the first African-American to do so.

Throughout the 1930s, she continued to spearhead progress for African-Americans on college campuses, lobbying for changes in academic standards for students, better health conditions on campuses, as well as an improved workplace atmosphere for female administrators.

Slowe passed away on Oct. 21, 1937, from kidney failure. In a brief 52 years, her tireless efforts to prepare females for life in the “modern world” shaped the lives of countless African-American females and her influence is immeasurable today.

Slowe's remarkable career was recognized as part of the program of the 70th anniversary convention of the National Association of Women Deans, Administrators and Counselors in 1986. A plaque honoring Slowe is displayed in the organization's headquarters in Washington, D.C.

She is still featured prominently in the Washington, D.C. area with the Lucy D. Slowe Hall on Howard’s campus and an elementary school bearing her name at 14th Street and Jackson Street, NE.

The influence of Edwin Bancroft Henderson is still felt in the Washington, D.C., area from the halls of Howard University to the playgrounds of inner-city neighborhoods. A major figure in fighting racial discrimination and eliminating segregated sports programs in the Washington community, Henderson found time to write the first book on the history of African-Americans in sport. And while he was at it, he also introduced the sport of basketball to the nation’s capital.

Henderson, born on Nov. 24, 1883, in Washington, D.C., to Louisa and William Henderson, was a superb student in the public schools of Pittsburgh, Pa., and Washington, D.C. He attended the highly regarded but segregated M Street School in Washington, D.C., a school that provided a broad education for African-Americans. Henderson’s two principals at the M School -- Dartmouth graduate Winfield Scott Montgomery and Harvard graduate Robert H. Terrell -- each stressed the importance of an education for students expected to become members of the nation’s African-American leaders.

Upon graduation, Henderson attended the Washington, D.C. Minor School, graduating at the top of his class in 1904 and accepting a job as an elementary school teacher in the Washington area. Prior to starting his new position, however, Henderson entered the Harvard Summer School of Physical Education, a move that would lay the groundwork for much of his later work.

Attending Harvard for three summers -- 1904, 1905 and 1907 -- Henderson learned the fundamentals of several sports, including basketball, which had been invented in 1891. His summers in Cambridge also provided Henderson with the opportunity to interact with like-minded forward thinkers like Dudley Allen Sargent, the school’s director.

Returning to Washington, D.C., after his 1904 summer session, Henderson taught physical culture, a new subject at the time, to elementary schools in the segregated school system. He also began to organize and coach various sports.

In addition to teaching the sport aspect of physical education including, gymnastics and weight work, Henderson was a firm believer in the importance of physical education as a mental tool. He felt strongly in the benefits of a “new physical education” that developed character, intellectual growth and strong social skills. Henderson also believed in the power of physical education to bring strength to the African-American community.

"It has been my feeling that athletics has done more to bring Negroes into the mainstream of our American Society than possibly any other medium," Henderson wrote in a paper in 1973 as he prepared to turn 90. "They create tolerance from the prejudiced, and then fellowship ... To a large extent this carries over to the classrooms and into other life situations."

Henderson may be most well known for bringing the sport of basketball to the Washington, D.C. community in 1904. He noted several times that out of all his amazing accomplishments, bringing the sport of basketball to his hometown gave him a special thrill.

He served as the city’s trainer, organizer, teacher and fundamentalist, and by 1905 he had six teams playing in the area. Not content to just oversee the evolution of the game in Washington, Henderson also excelled at the sport, leading a 12th Street YMCA squad that went undefeated for two years and won the national championship among black teams. And in what was probably the first matchup between two of the nation’s current hoops hotbeds, Henderson's squad defeated New York's premier squad, Smart Set, before 3,000 fans at Brooklyn's Manhattan Casino.

On May 30, 1906, Howard University hosted a track meet organized by Henderson that was the first inter-school meet for African-American youth. Under the banner of the ISAA, the first all-black athletic conference, Henderson followed this successful event with the formation of other leagues and teams in the region, including several for women.

In addition to his teaching duties at the time, Henderson found time to organize the Washington, D.C. Public School Athletic League (PSAL), which encouraged sports among all elementary school children, and the Eastern Board of Officials (EBO), which helped ensure equal treatment for African-American athletic officials.

Henderson also established the first varsity basketball program at Howard and the team soon claimed the Colored Basketball Championship.

Henderson and wife Mary Ellen moved to the Washington, D.C, suburb of Falls Church, Va., in 1912 where they continued their fight against all forms of racial injustice. It was in Falls Church that the Hendersons helped found the Fairfax County branch of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) as well as other organizations like the Colored Citizens Protective League, which successfully blocked the plans of the Falls Church Town Council from enforcing segregated housing.

In 1925, Henderson was appointed head of the Department of Physical Education in the Washington, D.C. segregated school system, a position he would hold for 25 years. In addition, Henderson was never far from the classroom himself, as he earned a bachelor’s degree from Howard in 1930 at the age of 47 and then attended Teacher’s College at Columbia where he obtained a master’s degree in 1934. Henderson also attended night classes at the School of Medicine at Howard and eventually earned a doctorate in athletic training from Central Chiropractic College.

Henderson wrote the first major book on African-American athletes in 1939 with “The Negro in Sports.” This revolutionary work lists the individual successes of African-Americans in sport, while also detailing the positive attributes gained in the African-American community from athletic achievements.

In an effort to reach the African-American youth, Henderson stated in the introduction, “this book is hopefully a beginning of a serious effort to put before the youth the story of a few of the outstanding athletes, and is also intended to encourage young people to maintain the racial vigor and health handed down to them by our ancestors …”

Henderson was no stranger to being published as he had contributed to journals and books throughout the first part of the 1900s. Using writing as a means to prove that African-Americans were equal to whites on and off the playing field, Henderson contributed sports columns to “Crisis,” the NAACP’s monthly newsletter edited by W.E.B. DuBois, as well as “The Messenger,” a paper noted for its editorials.

The second edition of “The Negro in Sports” came out in 1949 with details of the color lines that had been broken in sports like baseball, and a special edition arrived in 1951 in the “Negro History Bulletin.”

After retiring in 1954, Henderson and his wife relocated to Tuskegee, Ala., where their youngest son resided. In Alabama, Henderson continued to write, publishing four pieces in the early 1970s as well as countless newspaper editorials whenever he felt it was deserved. In fact, Henderson had more than 3,000 letters to the editor published in newspapers across the country.

In 1973 he was appointed as an Honorary President of the North American Society for Sport History, and the following year, at the age of 90, he was named a charter member of the Black Athletes Hall of Fame alongside such luminaries as Muhammad Ali, Jackie Robinson and Althea Gibson.

Following almost a century of preaching sports as a means of racial unity, Henderson passed away in February of 1977 at the age of 93. His legacy as a scholar and historian is cemented in history. And his efforts as a civil rights activist and pioneer in athletics are still far-reaching today.

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