Slowe was a tennis champion, winning the national title of the American Tennis Association’s first tournament in 1917, the first African American woman to win a major sports title.
1885
1937
Berryville, Virginia, USA
Her mother was Welsh and her father was Jamaican
1942 – the United States government built a dormitory to house African American female government workers, as housing in the city was extremely crowded because of new workers for the war effort. After World War II, the government transferred the building to Howard University for use as a dormitory. Named Lucy Diggs Slowe Hall in her honour, it opened in 1943. Located at 1919 Third Street NW, the hall today is operated by Howard as a co-ed residence.
The District of Columbia named an elementary school in Northeast DC after her. 1986 – the 70th convention of the National Association of Women Deans, Administrators and Counsellors formally recognised Slowe’s contributions. It presented a plaque dedicated to her to display at its headquarters in Washington, DC.
5 August – 9 September 9 – Slowe was featured among the women champions of the exhibit Breaking the Barriers: The ATA and Black Tennis Pioneers, sponsored by the International Tennis Hall of Fame and Museum.
2015 – the First Street Tunnel project named its Tunnel Boring Machine Lucy in honour of Slowe.
2017- the Virginia Department of Historic Resources erected a historic marker dedicated to Slowe in her hometown of Berryville
Her father’s occupation has been reported as a hotel operator, restaurant proprietor and farmer. He died before Lucy turned one and her mother died shortly after. Following her mother’s death, Lucy and her sister Charlotte were raised by her aunt Martha Price in Lexington, Virginia. At thirteen, Lucy and her family moved to Baltimore, Maryland, where she attended the Baltimore Coloured High and Training School. She graduated second in her class in 1904, receiving one of the two-sponsored scholarships to Howard from the Baltimore City School Board.
Slowe was the first person from her school to attend Howard University, the top historically Black college in the nation, at a time when only a third of 1% of African Americans and 5% of whites of eligible age attended any college.
Lucy Diggs Slowe was one of the nine original founders of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority at Howard University. She was instrumental in drafting the sorority’s constitution. She also served as the chapter’s first president.
After graduation in 1908, Slowe returned to Baltimore to teach English in high school. During the summers, she started studying at Columbia University in New York, where she earned her Masters of Arts degree in 1915.
After earning her MA she returned to Washington, DC to teach. Because the District was run as part of the Federal Government, African American teachers in the public schools were part of the civil service and paid on the same scale as European Americans. The system attracted outstanding teachers, especially for Dunbar High School, the academic high school for African Americans. In 1919, the District of Columbia asked Lucy Slowe to create the first junior high school in its system for Blacks and then appointed her as principal. She led Shaw junior high school until 1922, creating the first integrated inservice training for junior high school teachers in the District.
In 1917 Slowe won the American Tennis Association’s first tournament. She was the first African American woman to win a major sports title.
In 1922 Howard University selected Lucy Slowe as its first Dean of Women. Slowe was the first African American female to serve in that position at any university in the United States. As Dean of Women at Howard University, she imparted her vision of training women for the modern world. According to Slowe’s writings, she defined the modern world as a place where all people “strove for professional achievement and personal fulfillment.” In addition to being Dean of Women, Slowe was a faculty member of the English department. Slowe continued to serve as a college administrator at Howard for the rest of her career.
Slowe was active in Washington’s African American society, particularly dance and theatre. She was a member of the DuBois Circle, a Black women’s group that met to discuss current issues and the arts.
To pool resources, share knowledge, and build collaboration, Slowe founded both the National Association of College Women, which she led for several years as first president, and the Association of Advisors to Women in Coloured Schools.
Parents – Fannie Potter and Henry Slowe
Partner – Mary P. Burril
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rUdEi6-2P8o accessed 12/04/2022
https://lasentinel.net/tag/lucy-diggs-slowe accessed 12/04/2022 accessed 12/04/2022
https://hbcunews.com/2021/04/10/passing-the-torch-lucy-diggs-slowe-and-venus-williams/ accessed 12/04/2022
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lucy_Diggs_Slowe accessed 12/04/2022
https://Blackhistory.news.columbia.edu/people/lucy-diggs-slowe accessed 12/04/2022
https://libquotes.com/lucy-diggs-slowe accessed 12/04/2022
