Lucy Diggs Slowe Papers, Moorland-Spingarn Research Center

On July 4th, 1883, Lucy Diggs Slowe was born in the rural town of Berryville, Virginia. She tragically lost both of her parents at an early age. Sent to Baltimore, Maryland, to live with her father's sister, Martha. Slowe struggled with behavioral issues and had to be homeschooled. The future dean fell three grades behind her peers. Despite the early troubles, Slowe graduated as salutatorian from the Colored High School of Baltimore at age twenty-one. Howard University awarded her a full scholarship for her scholastic excellence. Slowe, seated at the far right, poses with her class.

"I owe a great deal of what success I have had to the inspiration of the colored teachers in the high school at Baltimore who are under the leadership of Dr. J.H.N. Waring, who was the principal of the school when I was a student there."

⎯ Lucy Diggs Slowe, “Memorandum”