Lucy Diggs Slowe was born in 1885, right here in Virginia. Sharp-minded. Observant. The kind of girl who noticed early on when the rules didn’t quite add up—and instead of shrugging, she kept the numbers in her head.
Lucy loved learning, but she loved fairness more.

She went to college at a time when that alone made a statement. Then she went and won a national tennis championship, not because she was trying to make history, but because she liked to compete and she was good at it. First Black woman to do that. No speeches. No victory lap. Just excellence.

Later, at Howard University, Lucy started seeing something that bothered her. Black women students were being monitored, managed, and micromanaged—while Black men were being prepared for leadership.

Lucy didn’t raise her voice about it. She raised the standard.

She became the Dean of Women and pushed back on rules that treated grown women like children. She fought for privacy, dignity, and the right for Black women to become themselves without apology or supervision disguised as concern.

And when she saw young Black women needing each other, she helped start Alpha Kappa Alpha—not for prestige, but so they’d have sisterhood, scholarship, and somewhere solid to stand. Lucy didn’t perform rebellion.
She practiced alignment.

SCRIPTURE CONTEXT
“Do not be conformed to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.” — Romans 12:2

BEFORE YOU MOVE ON
Where have you learned to make yourself smaller just to keep the peace? Lucy reminds us that refusing to conform isn’t arrogance—it’s obedience to who God made you to be.

Some people don’t change the room by entering it.
They change it by refusing to play along.

We see you, Lucy Diggs Slowe — for standing firm when shrinking was expected.

Bread Crumbs — for those coming after us.
Victorious without reward. Still here.