Edwin Henderson

Biography

Edwin Bancroft Henderson (November 24, 1883 – February 3, 1977), was an American educator and National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) pioneer. Called the "Father of Black Basketball", he introduced basketball to African Americans in Washington, D.C., in 1904, and was Washington's first male African American physical education teacher. 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, Henderson helped organize the Fairfax County branch of the NAACP and twice served as President of the Virginia NAACP in the 1950s.

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