Elsie M. Lewis

Elsie M. Lewis (May 12, 1912 - November 7, 1992) was a scholar, history professor, and consultant who was the first African American woman to publish an article in The Journal of Southern History and one of the first African American women to receive formal training in history. Lewis was additionally one of the first African Americans to join the Southern Historical Association.

Elsie M. Lewis
BornMay 12, 1912
Little Rock, Arkansas
DiedNovember 7, 1992
Cleveland Heights, Ohio
Occupation(s)historian, professor, consultant
Academic background
Alma materFisk University (BA), University of Southern California (MA), University of Chicago (PhD)
Academic work
DisciplineHistorian, Educator
InstitutionsHoward University

Background

Elsie M. Lewis was born in Little Rock, Arkansas on May 12, 1912. Her mother, Mary Frances Moore, was from Rose Dale, Mississippi, and her father, Napoleon Lewis, hailed from Monroe, Louisiana. Elsie Lewis was married to Joseph F. Makel, a Washington businessman.[1]

Lewis was a member of several different historical associations, including the American Historical Association, the Organization of American Historians, American Association of University Women, and was one of the first African Americans to be involved with the Southern Historical Association.[2]  

Elsie M. Lewis attended the Nashville, Tennessee based Fisk University for her undergraduate education, followed by the University of Southern California where she earned her MA in History. She later received her Ph.D. from the University of Chicago in 1946, making her one of seven African American women to earn a doctorate in history within the 1940s.

Lewis' dissertation, From National to Disunion: A Study of the Secession Movement in Arkansas, 1850-1861 marked the beginning of her notable career in academia. A portion of her research focused on African Americans in the South for the Civil War and Reconstruction era.[3]

In the late 1930s, while Lewis was a professor at Southern University in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, she encouraged the freedom dreams of students through the hosting of campus-wide mock elections for the Louisiana Governorship. She was also the creator of the quarterly campus bulletin, known as the Observer.[4]

In 1955, Lewis’ article, “The Political Mind of the Negro, 1865-1900,” was published in The Journal of Southern History (JSH), making her the first African American woman to have an article published for JSH. The essay was also distinguished as the first article written by an African American about African American content.[2] The piece covered the political views and thoughts of African Americans during this period and also the themes of emancipation.[2]

Lewis also had her work published in Carter Woodson’s Journal of Negro History.[5] Lewis began her career as a history professor at Southern University in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, then at Tennessee Agricultural and Industrial State University, where she was the head of the graduate department of history.[6]

In 1956, Lewis began working with the history department at Howard University. Eight years later she was selected as the chair of the history department. Dr. Lewis implemented substantial changes during her five-year term as the chair. She propelled changes in the department that granted graduate students more diverse course options.

Lewis contributed to a complete revision that allowed undergraduate students to concentrate on history.[3] Lewis also taught at George Washington University and Hunter College of the City University of New York.

In 1968, the National Park Service Washington D.C. office extended an invitation to Lewis to review material on African American history for their new American Museum of Immigration exhibit plans. She accepted their offer to provide her historical expertise and became a member of the Historians Committee for the future museum, located at the base of the Statue of Liberty on Liberty Island, New York.[7]  

On March 7, 1965, Lewis participated in the historic march from Selma to Montgomery in Alabama that was led by Martin Luther King Jr. to fight for Black voting rights. She marched with a group of 40-50 other distinguished American historians as the march approached Montgomery. The group was organized by Dr. Walter Johnson, Preston and Sterling Morton professor of American history at the University of Chicago.[8]

When Lewis was the chair of Howard University’s history department in 1969, she was also hired to be the historical consultant for Pepsi’s third record in their Black history marketing series. Lewis helped produce Adventures in Negro History, Vol. III The Afro-American’s Quest for Education: A Black Odyssey.[9]

In 1970, Elsie M. Lewis took a sabbatical from Howard University to write a book,[10] Washington in the new era, 1870–1970. Dr. Elsie M. Lewis died in Cleveland Heights, Ohio, on November 7, 1992.[11]

References
  1. Elsie Mae Lewis in the Arkansas, Birth Certificates, 1914-1922. Ancestry Library.
  2. Dagbovie, Pero Gaglo (July 2004). "Black Women Historians from the Late 19th Century to the Dawning of the Civil Rights Movement". The Journal of African American History. 89 (3): 241–261. doi:10.2307/4134077. JSTOR 4134077. S2CID 144524720.
  3. "An Afro-American's Quest for Education: The Elsie M. Lewis papers". amistadresearchctr. 2022-04-18. Retrieved 2023-08-11.
  4. Favors, Jelani M. (8 February 2019). "We Can! We Will! We Must! The Radicalization and Transformation of Southern University, 1930–1966". Shelter in a Time of Storm: How Black Colleges Fostered Generations of Leadership and Activism. UNC Press Books. pp. 168–170. ISBN 978-1-4696-4834-7.
  5. Spongberg, Mary; Curthoys, Ann; Caine, Barbara, eds. (2005). Companion to Women's Historical Writing. p. 568. doi:10.1007/978-1-349-72468-0. ISBN 978-0-230-23999-9.
  6. NAACP (1951). "College and School News". The Crisis. 58 (10): 689 – via Google Books.
  7. Blumberg, Barbara (1985). "Chapter 3: The American Museum of Immigration Takes Shape". Celebrating the Immigrant: An Administrative History of the Statue of Liberty National Monument. Division of Cultural Resources. North Atlantic Regional Office: National Park Service: Cultural Resource Management Study No. 10.
  8. ""Proceedings and Debates of the 89th Congress First Session," Vol. 3, Part 5". Congressional Record - House. United States of American: United States Government Printing Office. March 29, 1965. pp. 6261–6262.
  9. Davis, Joshua Clark (2019-06-19). "When John Hope Franklin and Pepsi Made a Black History Record". AAIHS. Retrieved 2023-08-11.
  10. Scully, Malcom (February 9, 1970). "Profiles of Women in Higher Education". The Chronicle of Higher Education.
  11. Elsie Lewis in the Ohio, U.S., Death Records, 1908-1932, 1938-2018. Ancestry Library
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