Edwin Henderson
| E.B. Henderson | |
|---|---|
| Born |
November 24, 1883 Washington, D.C., United States |
| Died | February 3, 1977 (aged 93) Tuskegee, Alabama, United States |
| Residence | Falls Church, Virginia, United States |
| Occupation | Educator, Civil rights activist in Virginia and nationally |
| Spouse(s) | Mary Ellen (Nellie) Meriwether |
Edwin Bancroft Henderson (November 24, 1883 – February 3, 1977), was an African-American educator and National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) pioneer. The "Father of Black Basketball," introduced basketball to African Americans in Washington, D.C. in 1904, and was Washington's first male African American physical education teacher (and possibly the first in the country). From 1926 until his retirement in 1954, Henderson served as director of health and physical education for Washington D.C.'s black schools. An athlete and team player rather than a star, Henderson both taught physical education to African Americans and organized athletic activities in Washington, D.C. and Fairfax County, Virginia, where his grandmother lived and where he returned with his wife in 1910 to raise their family. A prolific letter writer both to newspapers in the Washington D.C. metropolitan area and Alabama (where he spent many of his last years), Henderson also helped organize the Fairfax County branch of the NAACP and twice served as President of the Virginia NAACP in the 1950s.
Henderson was born in southwest Washington, D.C. on November 24, 1883. His father, William Henderson, was a day laborer and his mother Louisa taught him to read at an early age. He often reminisced about Al Jolson having been one of his playmates, as well as how he watched racial segregation grow in Washington after the turn of the century, particularly during the Woodrow Wilson administration. His grandmother Eliza Thomas Henderson had a small store in Washington, but in 1882 (the year before his birth) had moved to Falls Church, Virginia and bought a house at 121 S. Washington Street. Henderson became familiar with that area too, spending summers there and sometimes assisting at that store. The family farm, bought about a decade later, had once been part of Camp Alger. Henderson graduated from Dunbar High School, then the Miner Normal School (later D.C. Teacher's College) in 1904.
He earned a bachelor's degree from Howard University, a master's degree from Columbia University, and a Ph.D. in athletic training from Central Chiropractic College in Kansas City, Missouri. Henderson became the first black man to receive a National Honor Fellowship in the American Association for Health, Physical Education and Recreation. Shortly before his retirement from the D.C. Schools at age 70, Henderson also received an Alumni Achievement Award from his alma mater, Howard University.
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