Slowe, Lucy Diggs, 1885-1937

Lucy Diggs Slowe was born July 4, 1883 in Berryville, Virginia. In 1904 she graduated from Baltimore Colored High School in Baltimore, Maryland. She entered Howard University and was the first girl from Baltimore Colored High School to enter and first to receive a scholarship. 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.

After graduating from Howard University she taught English; she received her M.A. degree from Columbia University. In 1919, Slowe organized and became first principal of Shaw Junior High School, first Junior High School for African Americans in Washington, D.C.

In 1922, she was appointed Dean of Women at Howard University, the first Black woman to serve as Dean of Women at any American university. Additionally, she was a founder of Alpha Kappa Alpha sorority, the first sorority founded by African-American women. She died October 21, 1937 in Washington, D.C.