Faithful to the Task at Hand , livre ebook

State University of New York Press - Anne S. Pruitt-Logan , Carroll L.L. Miller

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323 pages

English

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Born just twenty years after the end of slavery and orphaned at the age of five, Lucy Diggs Slowe (1885–1937) became a seventeen-time tennis champion and the first African American woman to win a major sports title, a founder of the Alpha Kappa Alpha sorority, and the first Dean of Women at Howard University. She provided leadership and service in a wide range of organizations concerned with improving the conditions of women, African Americans, and other disadvantaged groups and also participated in peace activism. Among her many accomplishments, she created the first junior high school for black students in Washington, DC.

In this long overdue biography, Carroll L. L. Miller and Anne S. Pruitt-Logan tell the remarkable story of Slowe's steadfast determination working her way through college, earning respect as a teacher and dean, and standing up to Howard's President and Board of Trustees in insisting on equal treatment of women. Along the way, the authors weave together recurring themes in African American history: the impact of racism, the importance of education, the role of sports, and gender inequality.

Sujets

Ethnic studies

Education

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Publié par	State University of New York Press
Date de parution	28 juin 2012
Nombre de lectures	0
EAN13	9781438442600
Langue	English
Poids de l'ouvrage	1 Mo

Informations légales : prix de location à la page 0,1748€. Cette information est donnée uniquement à titre indicatif conformément à la législation en vigueur.

Extrait

Faithful to the Task at Hand
The Life of Lucy Diggs Slowe
Carroll L. L. Miller
and
Anne S. Pruitt-Logan

Cover: Lucy Diggs Slowe when she entered upon her duties as the First Dean of Women at Howard University. (Moorland-Spingarn Research Center, Howard University)
Published by State University of New York Press, Albany
© 2012 State University of New York
All rights reserved
Printed in the United States of America
No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission. No part of this book may be stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means including electronic, electrostatic, magnetic tape, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise without the prior permission in writing of the publisher.
For information, contact State University of New York Press, Albany, NY www.sunypress.edu
Production by Eileen Meehan Marketing by Fran Keneston
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Miller, Carroll L.
Faithful to the task at hand : the life of Lucy Diggs Slowe / Carroll L.L. Miller and Anne S. Pruitt-Logan.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-1-4384-4258-7 (pbk. : alk. paper)
ISBN 978-1-4384-4259-4 (hardcover)
1. Slowe, Lucy Diggs, 1885–1937. 2. Educators—United States—Biography. 3. African American women educators—Biography. 4. Women deans (Education)—United States—Biography. 5. Howard University—History—20th century. I. Pruitt-Logan, Anne S. II. Title.
LA2317.S6185M55 2012
378.009—dc23
[B]
2011030209
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

To Carroll L.L. Miller, Marion Thompson Wright, and Walter G. Daniel
and
To my husband, Harold G. Logan, who persuaded me to complete Dr. Miller's book
—Anne Pruitt-Logan
Illustrations
Photographs follow page xviii
1. Carroll Lee Liverpool Miller
2. Marion Thompson Wright
3. Walter Green Daniel
Photographs follow page 78
4. Robert Price
5. Lucy Slowe when she graduated from high school
6. Dwight O. W. Holmes
7. Kelly Miller
8. George W. Cook
9. Lucy Slowe and her doubles partner in tennis, John F. N. Wilkinson
10. Lucy Slowe on tennis court
11. Lucy Slowe when she entered upon her duties as principal of Shaw Junior High School
Photographs follow page 206
12. Lucy Slowe as Dean of Women at Howard
13. J. Stanley Durkee
14. Lucy Slowe with friend and housemate, Mary P. Burrill
15. Thyrsa W. Amos
16. Mordecai W. Johnson
17. Emmet J. Scott
18. Lucy Slowe, with shovel at groundbreaking
19. Group of dignitaries at groundbreaking
20. Truth Hall
21. Frazier Hall
22. Crandall Hall
23. Delegates to the 16th Anniversary Session of the National Association of Deans of Women
24. A student using the Health Service for women students
25. Lucy Slowe with her friend, Clyda Jane Williams of St. Louis, Missouri (seated)
26. Lucy Slowe with Charlotte Hawkins Brown
27. Members of Clark Hall Council (men's dormitory)
Photographs follow page 324
28. Two photos of Garden Parties at Dean Slowe's Home
29. Students who registered for Lucy Slowe's first course for Deans of Women at Howard University
30. Members of the National Association of Deans of and Advisers to Women in Colored Schools
31. Romiett Stevens
Photographs follow page 350
32. Stained glass window honoring Lucy Diggs Slowe
33. Lucy Slowe wearing a string of pearls
Preface
The story of Lucy Diggs Slowe is the saga of an African-American woman who, despite numerous difficulties and obstacles, including male chauvinism, became a spokesperson for African Americans, a leader of African-American women, an authoritative voice on the social and educational conditions and problems of African Americans, an individual who discussed racial problems frankly, and a legend in educational, social service, and community circles in the early decades of the twentieth century.
In August 1960, Dr. Marion Thompson Wright, professor of education at Howard University, accepted an invitation to write a biographical sketch of Lucy Diggs Slowe for Notable American Women: 1607–1950 A Biographical Dictionary 1 to be published under the auspices of Radcliffe College. Wright wrote in the Preface to the first draft:
As the work on this progressed, there developed a conviction that a more detailed account of this educator's life should be written because she was one of the pioneers who had engaged in a continued effort to elevate the status of women in higher education. It appeared that such a study should not be delayed since many of the people who had associated with her were still living. On the other hand, very few remained who had known her as a growing girl. So limited were the sources of data on her early life that it was deemed advisable to attempt the story primarily of Dean Slowe as she was known during the last fifteen years of her life. It was during this period that she became widely known in educational circles through the varied activities in which she engaged in her efforts to upgrade the status of women members of college and university faculties and to improve the quality of education for women students.
Marion Thompson Wright did not live to see the study completed, for she died in 1962. 2 At that time, she had completed 228 pages of the Slowe biography handwritten in pencil on yellow legal paper—approximately two-thirds of the projected study. Her sources were limited to newspaper articles, journal reports, and letters from individuals who had known Dean Slowe. The original materials Wright used were not included in her papers. As there was no question of the integrity of Wright's work, only a sample check of her sources was necessary. After Wright's death, Dr. Dorothy Porter Wesley, the noted bibliophile, and I decided to complete the manuscript and to prepare it for publication. Complications arose, and time constraints delayed work on the document.
In addition, Slowe's papers had been deposited on an unknown date at Morgan State College (now University) in Baltimore, Maryland. However, on March 22, 1966, Morgan State College donated the Slowe papers to Howard University. These materials were made available for research several years later and are now on deposit in the Manuscript Division of the Moorland-Spingarn Research Center at Howard University. Thus, these papers constituted significant materials relating to Slowe that were not used by Wright.
I have attempted to use the Wright materials as they fit the thrust of the present manuscript— Faithful to the Task at Hand: The Life of Lucy Diggs Slowe —rather than Wright's emphasis on Slowe as an eminent figure in the field of student personnel administration. Although Lucy Diggs Slowe was a leader in the student personnel field, her activities and influence extended far beyond it to policies and practices in the education of African Americans through the educational levels, community and world affairs, and new and more significant roles for women in American life. My perspective, then, relates to Slowe as an African-American woman on the cutting edge of American education and American society. Thus, I give attention to the life span of Lucy Diggs Slowe and her influence and impact over the years.
Carroll L. L. Miller
10 May 1994

Addendum
Like Marion Thompson Wright, Dr. Miller died before his manuscript was presented to a publisher. He passed away on April 24, 2003. In late 2002, he had asked me to edit it for him. Dr. Miller had performed yeoman's work in scouring Slowe's archival materials housed at the Moorland-Spingarn Research Center. In working on his manuscript, I set about to add context by exploring the making of Lucy Diggs Slowe. Although Dr. Miller drew heavily upon Slowe's materials housed in the Moorland-Spingarn Research Center at Howard University, I believed that they could be properly interpreted and appreciated only through an understanding of the context in which they are embedded. What was America like for African Americans during her lifetime? How did the answer to this question mold her into the woman who died a premature death in 1937? I have asked questions that have not been raised in previous biographical sketches. As an interloper in historiography, I hope that I have rounded out Dr. Miller's work.
Working on this biography brings to mind the interconnection of lives. On the one hand, as a student at Howard University 1945–49, I became acquainted with Carroll L. L. Miller. He was Associate Dean of the College of Liberal Arts from which I earned the bachelor's degree. He knew me and my later career well enough to include me in his book titled Role Model Blacks: Known but Little Known . (Muncie, IN: Accelerated Development, Inc., 1982). Carroll Lee Liverpool Miller was a scholar and educational administrator at Howard University for more than 50 years. He rose in the professorial and administrative ranks at Howard to become Dean of the Graduate School. When he retired in 1974, he left a position he had held for eight years. His reverence for Lucy Diggs Slowe derives in part from the fact that he was a student at Shaw Junior High School while she was its principal.
Marion Thompson Wright, on the other hand, was my teacher at Howard. It was she who urged me to enroll at Teachers College, Columbia University, immediately after completing my college work. I majored in psychology but did not want to pursue a doctorate in tha