Columbia Trailblazer: Lucy Diggs Slowe '15GSAS
2/12/2021 3:00:00 PM | General, Women's Tennis
Black History Month Feature PageLucy Diggs Slowe Columbia StoryLucy Diggs Slowe Ivy 50 FeatureNew York Times StoryHoward Biography
As the first Black woman to win a national championship in any sport, Columbia graduate Lucy Diggs Slowe’s lasting legacy was her influence on education and devotion to civil and women’s rights.
BLACK HISTORY MONTH—A pioneer in the shaping of educational reform for women of color, the amazing and multi-talented Lucy Diggs Slowe was a woman of many "firsts" in the world of sports, education, women's rights, and civil rights. It is safe to say that Diggs Slowe was also the most influential advocate for change for Black collegiate women in the first half of the 20th century.
Two years after earning a Master of Arts degree in English from Columbia's Graduate School of Arts and Sciences (1915), Lucy Diggs Slowe became the first Black woman to win a major championship in any sport as she captured the first women's title at the American Tennis Association's (ATA) national tournament in Baltimore. She went on to compete professionally in tennis. Before the ATA, it had been 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 allowed Black Americans the opportunity to participate in competitive organized tennis. As a professional tennis player, Diggs Slowe went on to win 17 cups in an era when few blacks competed with whites in that sport.
After her tennis career concluded, Diggs Slowe went onto a long and distinguished career in education. She started with teaching assignments in Baltimore and later Washington, D.C. In 1919, the first Black Junior High School was established in the Washington D.C. school system with Diggs Slowe as its principal. She organized the school, developed curriculum, designed and planned an in-service training system for teachers and persuaded Columbia University to offer an extension course in education attended by black teachers and white junior high staff.
In 1922, Diggs Slowe was hired by Howard as its College Dean of Women, a position she held until her death in 1937. As the first Black woman to serve in that position, she went on to positively improve the conditions for women in higher education in all facets. Stressing the need for a separated area for female students, she secured the establishment of a "women's campus" at Howard (three new dormitories for women) and influenced the philosophy and appointment of female deans to Black campuses throughout the country. One of the new dormitories was named Slowe Hall in her honor. This led to forward-thinking in terms of equal rights for men and women by progress for Black administrators on college campuses nationwide.
In 1935, Diggs Slowe helped organize the National Council of Negro Women and became its secretary. She helped found the National Association of College Women and became its first president. The organization was founded to pool resources, share knowledge and build collaboration. She also worked with the progressive Young Women's Christian Association (YWCA), the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom, and founded the Association of Advisors to Women in Colored Schools.
As a class valedictorian and 1908 graduate of Howard, she accepted a teaching position at Douglass High School in Baltimore. In 1911, she began her studies at Columbia University in New York and after completing her Master's degree in 1915, continued with student personnel classes at Columbia's Teachers College.
A Baltimore, Md. native, Diggs Slowe proved to be an excellent student. At age 13, she entered the city's segregated public school system and graduated from Baltimore Colored School in 1904, becoming the first female graduate and the first scholarship recipient of the school to be accepted into Howard. As an undergraduate at Howard, Diggs Slowe was a founding member of the first Greek-letter sorority for black women, Alpha Kappa Alpha. The sorority has remained active since 1908 and after 112 years in existence, boasts a membership of over 260,000 college-educated women worldwide.
Diggs Slowe passed away on Oct. 21, 1937, from kidney failure at the age 52. She is buried at the Lincoln Memorial Cemetery in Suitland, Md. Diggs Slowe's remarkable career was recognized as part of the program of the 70th anniversary convention of the National Association of Women's 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.
Two years after earning a Master of Arts degree in English from Columbia's Graduate School of Arts and Sciences (1915), Lucy Diggs Slowe became the first Black woman to win a major championship in any sport as she captured the first women's title at the American Tennis Association's (ATA) national tournament in Baltimore. She went on to compete professionally in tennis. Before the ATA, it had been 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 allowed Black Americans the opportunity to participate in competitive organized tennis. As a professional tennis player, Diggs Slowe went on to win 17 cups in an era when few blacks competed with whites in that sport.
After her tennis career concluded, Diggs Slowe went onto a long and distinguished career in education. She started with teaching assignments in Baltimore and later Washington, D.C. In 1919, the first Black Junior High School was established in the Washington D.C. school system with Diggs Slowe as its principal. She organized the school, developed curriculum, designed and planned an in-service training system for teachers and persuaded Columbia University to offer an extension course in education attended by black teachers and white junior high staff.In 1922, Diggs Slowe was hired by Howard as its College Dean of Women, a position she held until her death in 1937. As the first Black woman to serve in that position, she went on to positively improve the conditions for women in higher education in all facets. Stressing the need for a separated area for female students, she secured the establishment of a "women's campus" at Howard (three new dormitories for women) and influenced the philosophy and appointment of female deans to Black campuses throughout the country. One of the new dormitories was named Slowe Hall in her honor. This led to forward-thinking in terms of equal rights for men and women by progress for Black administrators on college campuses nationwide.
In 1935, Diggs Slowe helped organize the National Council of Negro Women and became its secretary. She helped found the National Association of College Women and became its first president. The organization was founded to pool resources, share knowledge and build collaboration. She also worked with the progressive Young Women's Christian Association (YWCA), the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom, and founded the Association of Advisors to Women in Colored Schools.
As a class valedictorian and 1908 graduate of Howard, she accepted a teaching position at Douglass High School in Baltimore. In 1911, she began her studies at Columbia University in New York and after completing her Master's degree in 1915, continued with student personnel classes at Columbia's Teachers College.
A Baltimore, Md. native, Diggs Slowe proved to be an excellent student. At age 13, she entered the city's segregated public school system and graduated from Baltimore Colored School in 1904, becoming the first female graduate and the first scholarship recipient of the school to be accepted into Howard. As an undergraduate at Howard, Diggs Slowe was a founding member of the first Greek-letter sorority for black women, Alpha Kappa Alpha. The sorority has remained active since 1908 and after 112 years in existence, boasts a membership of over 260,000 college-educated women worldwide.
Diggs Slowe passed away on Oct. 21, 1937, from kidney failure at the age 52. She is buried at the Lincoln Memorial Cemetery in Suitland, Md. Diggs Slowe's remarkable career was recognized as part of the program of the 70th anniversary convention of the National Association of Women's 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.
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