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Lucy Diggs Slowe and the ‘New Howard Woman’

By Blog Editor, IOE Digital, on 3 October 2023

Street sign of Lucy Diggs Slowe Way, Howard University, USA.

Street sign of Lucy Diggs Slowe Way, Howard University. Credit: Justin D. Knight/Howard University.

Sandra Leaton Gray and David Scott.

On 22 October 2021, Howard University honoured the American educator Lucy Diggs Slowe by naming a street after her at 2455 4th St NW, Washington DC. The designation ceremony was led by Mayor Muriel Bowser, a Howard alumna herself. Phylicia Rashad, Dean of the Chadwick A. Boseman College of Fine Arts, asked the question: “What was that impetus, what was that spirit inside that young woman? This faith and confidence and belief in herself? … What I am really excited about is discovering that same spirit within our young women on this campus today. And bringing them to that realisation within themselves of who they are in spirit. Confident. Aware. Capable. Strong. Intelligent. Prepared to inspire the next generation, the next generation, the next generation. Because this is what we do, this is how we are, and this is how we stay.” (more…)