Queer Ancestor Spotlight: Lucy Diggs Slowe and Mary Burrill
Lucy Diggs Slowe was an African-American educator and athlete, and founder of Alpha Kappa Alpha sorority, the first sorority founded by African-American women. Mary Burrill was an African-American playwright of the Harlem Renaissance, writing plays about the Black experience and often centered the Black elite of Washington D.C. in her work. Slowe and Burrill met in 1912 and would go on to spend twenty-five years together.
The Slowe-Burrill house in Washington, D.C.
Lucy Diggs Slowe was born on July 4, 1883 in Berryville, Virginia. Her parents died when she was very young, leaving Slowe and her sister Charlotte to be raised by her aunt. At thirteen she moved to Baltimore, Maryland where she attended the Baltimore Colored High and Training School. She graduated in 1904 and attended Howard University, the top historically Black college in the United States, located in Washington, D.C. After graduating she returned to Baltimore to teach English, and pursued a Master of Arts from Columbia University which she completed in 1915.
While at Howard, Slowe was involved with the creation of Alpha Kappa Alpha. Following the work of Ethel Hedgemon Lyle, university administration gave approval for the formation of this sorority in the fall of 1907, making AKA the first member of the Divine Nine to be created at a historically Black college or university. Slowe was a member of the original group that first met in 1908.
Mary Burrill was born in August 1881 in Washington, D.C. She graduated from M Street High School, which would later be renamed Dunbar High School, one of the leaded Black academic schools at the time. She had what many believe to be a romantic relationship with African-American playwright, poet, and teacher Angelina Weld Grimké, who encouraged Burrill’s own literary passion and talents. She attended Emerson College of Oratory in Boston, Massachusetts, and after graduating in 1904 returned to Washington, D.C. She taught English, history, and drama at Dunbar High School and Armstrong High.
Two of Burrill’s most well known plays are They That Sit in Darkness, published in Birth Control Review, and Aftermath, published in The Liberator. Both plays were published in 1919 and are considered “protest plays” due to their progressive messages on gender and race.
Slowe and Burrill met in 1912. A few years after they met, Slowe moved to Washington, D.C. where the two women bought a house together. Their romantic relationship remained a secret to all but their closest friends.
In 1919, the DC public school system asked Slowe to create the first junior high school in DC for Black students and appointed her as its principal. She led Shaw Junior High School until 1922 when Howard University selected her as their first Dean of Women. She was also the first Black woman to hold that position at any U.S. higher education institution. During her tenure as Dean she advocated for female students and fought against sexual harassment and assault.
Following Slowe’s appointment at Howard, she and Burrill decided to move closer to the university and purchased a new home in Brookland on Kearney Street. They would live there for fifteen years until Slowe’s death in 1937. Following the death of her longtime partner, Burrill moved out of their home to a small apartment. When she retired from teaching in 1944 she moved to New York City, where she lived until her death in 1946.
Slowe is buried in Lincoln Memorial Cemetery in Suitland, Maryland. Burrill is buried in Woodlawn Cemetery in Washington, D.C. In 2020 the house they lived in on Kearney Street was added to the National Register of Historic Places as a significant location for education and social history, and LGBTQ+ history, listed as the Slowe-Burrill House. Per the National Park Service website: “Unlike other monuments to Slowe and Burrill, their home, Kearney St. centers their queerness alongside their professional achievements.”
[One other fact about Lucy Diggs Slowe: In 1917 she won the American Tennis Association’s first tournament, making her the first Black woman to win a major sports title.]
Learn more about Lucy Diggs Slowe and Mary Burrill
Slowe-Burrill House - National Park Service
AKA History - Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc.
Overlooked No More: Lucy Diggs Slowe, Scholar Who Persisted Against Racism and Sexism - The New York Times
Lucy Diggs Slowe - American Tennis Association
Lucy Diggs Slowe, Obituary - The Hilltop, Howard University
Slowe Hall - Bonstra Haresign Architects
Mary Burrill - National Women’s History Museum
Mary Burrill, Obituary - Evening Star, Washington, D.C.
They That Sit in Darkness by Mary Burrill - One-Act-Plays
Honoring Black History Month: Mary P. Burrill - Emerson Today, Emerson College
Mary P. (Mamie) Burrill - Alexander Street
