Elsie M. Lewis papers

Elsie Mae Lewis was an educator, consultant and scholar notable for her extensive research as an associate professor at Howard University. She was part of the first coterie of formally trained Black women historians of the 1940s; she served as chair of the History Department at Howard University (1964-1969); and she was the first African American contributor to the Journal of Southern History.

A native of Little Rock, Arkansas, Lewis was born on May 2, 1912 to Napoleon Lewis and Mary Moore Lewis. She graduated from Mifflin Wister Gibbs High School in 1928. After graduating from Fisk University with her bachelor’s degree in 1932, Lewis earned her master’s degree from the University of Southern California in June 1933, and a Ph.D. in history from the University of Chicago in 1946 with her dissertation, From Nationalism to Disunion: A Study of the Secession Movement in Arkansas, 1850-1861. She married Joseph F. Makel, but used her maiden name in her work.

Prior to joining the department of history at Howard University in 1956, Lewis taught history at Southern University in Baton Rouge, Louisiana (1934-1943), and at Tennessee Agricultural and Industrial University in Nashville, specializing in the history of African Americans in the South during the Civil War and Reconstruction Era. Her professorship position at Howard came as a result of well-known historian and Howard professor John Hope Franklin being appointed full professor and chair of the History Department at Brooklyn College that same year.

Lewis’ tenure at Howard University represented a remarkably ambitious change in the historical canon. From 1964 to 1969 Lewis served as chair of Howard University’s history department. During her tenure, she was responsible for two major structural changes in the history department’s curriculum. First, Lewis established a good foundation for greater differentiation in courses available to graduate students without compromising undergraduate instruction. Second, she oversaw the total revision of undergraduate courses during her tenure. This change became a major benefit for undergraduate students, as they were offered a broader choice of courses, including the option to concentrate in the field of history.

Lewis authored a myriad of books, articles, research papers, book reviews and other writings throughout her career. In 1970, Lewis took a sabbatical to complete her book, Agenda Freedom, but eventually left Howard University to teach American and Black History at Hunter College in New York. With historian, Letitia Woods, Lewis coauthored the books, Washington from Banneker to Douglas, 1791-1870 (1971) and Washington in the new era, 1870-1970 (1972). Lewis also wrote a book review for the Journal of Negro Education analyzing the book, Antislavery: The Crusade for Freedom in America written by Dwight Lowell Dumond. Lewis’ book review examines Dumond’s views on race relations, scholarship, and American democracy. . As a consultant, one of Lewis’ most fascinating acts of public engagement is a recording she helped to produce for Pepsi-Cola, Adventures in Negro History, Vol. III: The Afro-American’s Quest for Education: A Black Odyssey. Produced by Pepsi-Cola as part of a marketing campaign to connect with the African American community, this 1969 recording became the third record for the company’s series. Lewis served as the historical consultant for this public history project.

Many of Lewis’ contributions to African American women’s history centered around education and historical research. Her research focused on African American subject matter and analyzed Black politics from the Civil War and Emancipation to Reconstruction. Lewis’ dissertation explored the succession movement in Arkansas from 1850 to 1861 and the state’s involvement in the American Civil War.

Lewis expressed her passion for education and history in New York. Her community activism in education included a union of activities. Lewis’ professional activities involved her stint as a consultant for: Biographical Dictionary of American Women for Radcliffe College (1965); National Foundation for the Arts and Humanities (1968); Evaluation of proposals for the United States Department of Education (1967-1969); the Division of Education and Research and Proposals from 1968-1969 with the Ford Foundation; and member of the historians committee of the American Museum of Immigration Statue of Liberty consultant on the exhibit of Black immigrants (1972). She also served as a committee member of the Collection of Women’s Papers of the Library of Congress (1971) and as a member of the United States Post Office Committee, where Lewis was responsible for the selection of the Historic Flag Stamp Series (1968-1969).

Dr. Elsie Mae Lewis passed away on November 7, 1992 in Cleveland Heights, Ohio.