Lewis, Elma (1921—)

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Lewis, Elma (1921—)

African-American arts administrator and educator. Born in 1921 in Boston, Massachusetts; daughter of Edwardine Jordan Corbin Lewis (a maid) and Clairmont Richard McDonald Lewis (a day laborer); educated in Boston public schools; Emerson College, B.A., Literature Interpretation, 1943; Boston University School of Education, M.A., 1944.

Founded Elma Lewis School of Fine Arts in Roxbury, Massachusetts (1950); founder and director, National Center of Afro-American Artists (1968).

A dancer, actress, teacher, director, choreographer, and speech therapist, Elma Lewis changed the artistic landscape in Boston when she opened the Elma Lewis School of Fine Arts in Roxbury, Massachusetts, in 1950. As the founder of the National Center of Afro-American Artists, Lewis promoted the work of black artists, attracting national attention throughout the 1990s. Her primary concern was to nurture the creative energies of the nation's black population, and to help develop what she called "good human beings" with pride in their black heritage; however, she also noted, "if in the process we develop good artists, that's all right, too."

The daughter of immigrants from Barbados, Elma Lewis was born in Boston, Massachusetts, in 1921. She was the only child of Edwardine Lewis , a maid, and Clairmont Lewis, a day laborer, and had two older half brothers from her mother's first marriage, which had ended when the boys' father died. Learning to read by the age of three with the help of one of these brothers, Lewis was evaluated that year by a group of white educators. She never forgot their report, which read in part: "This bright, precocious little Negro girl will, as is usual with members of her race, test at a much lower level as she gets older." Lewis had her stage debut the same year when she recited a poem at a meeting of the Marcus Garvey Universal Negro Improvement Association. Both her parents attended Sunday meetings of the association, which was aimed at fostering Garvey's goals of black pride, dignity, and self-sufficiency. Her mother was also a Black Cross nurse, and her father was a member of the African Legion. Both parents worked hard to provide an education for their children, and Elma studied dance, voice, and piano as a child, as well as taking elocution lessons. By the time she was 11, Lewis earned as much as $50 per week through dance and drama performances, an enormous sum in those early years of the Depression. She attended the prestigious Boston Latin School, graduating in 1939, and taught dance from 1935 to 1941 at the Doris W. Jones School of Dance in Boston. From 1942 to 1943, Lewis served as a speech therapist at Roxbury Memorial High School for Girls, also working as a student speech therapist for the Massachusetts Mental Health Habit Clinic in Boston to pay her way through Emerson College.

When Lewis graduated from Emerson with a B.A. in Literature Interpretation in 1943, she went on to take a Master of Arts degree at Boston University School of Education in 1944. With few opportunities for black actresses, she decided to turn her talents toward the education of exceptional children. She taught in the Boston public schools in 1945 and worked again at the Massachusetts Mental Health Habit Clinic from 1945 to 1949 before turning her attention to two social services agencies. At the Harriet Tubman House in Boston's South End, she became a fine-arts worker; at the Robert Gould Shaw House, she directed and choreographed 21 operas and operettas for the Robert Gould Shaw House Chorus between 1946 and 1968. Dedicated to working in the arts in an urban setting with a large black community, Lewis opened the Elma Lewis School for Fine Arts in Boston's Roxbury section in 1950. Beginning in a six-room apartment, the school had a stated mission to "offer quality education in the arts to children in the neighborhood." She had $300—borrowed from her father—a few folding chairs, and a rented piano when she opened the doors to her first 25 students. Along with four teachers, she provided dance and drama instruction for local children.

In 1968, Lewis purchased a former synagogue and school for the price of one dollar. Formerly a predominantly Jewish neighborhood, the area had become inhabited by middle-class black families. Although her school had been popular, it had lacked a permanent home, and the changing demographics of the area presented an opportunity for her to buy property at a crucial time. Once she obtained property, fund-raising went beyond the bake sales of the school's earlier days. Lewis established an endowment and began rehabilitating the building. In January 1969, the school opened once again, this time with an enrollment of 250 students and courses including drama, various kinds of dance, African drumming, music, writing, and art. The school also began offering these programs to inmates at the Massachusetts Correctional Institute at Norfolk. The Technical Theater Training Program, started in 1970, helped to prepare inmates for such technical positions as stage managers, sound technicians, and electricians.

The Elma Lewis School of Fine Arts became a subsidiary of the National Center of Afro-American Artists, founded and directed by Lewis, in 1968. The center took on a range of projects, which included an experimental theater, jazz and classical orchestras, and a summer theater in Boston's Franklin Park. Lewis' ambitious range of arts projects began to attract attention in the larger Boston community. Her fund-raising efforts brought financial support from the Boston Globe, New England Telephone and other local companies and agencies, the same year the school re-opened. Grants also came from the Rockefeller Foundation, the Kresge Foundation, the National Endowment for the Arts, and the Ford Foundation. Keeping the school's tuition low, Lewis made it possible for anyone who wished to enroll to do so. While most students attended after primary and high school hours, evening adult programs were also established. Nationally acclaimed artists made appearances at the school, helping raise its profile and its fund-raising base. Harry Belafonte, Duke Ellington, Odetta , Max Roach, Ossie Davis and Ruby Dee all came to teach, perform, or help raise money. In 1981, Lewis was among the first recipients of the MacArthur Foundation Fellowships (the no-strings-attached "genius grants"). With a five-year grant of $280,000, she was able to have some necessary eye surgery and travel, while developing a curriculum on black culture.

In 1988, the school closed. Lewis was by then 67 years old but still endowed with the same vitality as when she began her school. The one project she continued to foster was the beloved annual production of Langston Hughes' Black Nativity, with a cast of 150, which she directed until she was nearly 80, suffering from kidney failure, and almost blind from diabetes.

Lewis has received more than 100 citations and awards, including the Mayor's Citation from the City of Boston in 1970 and on other occasions; the Henry O. Tanner Award from the Black Arts Council of California (1971); a resolution passed by both houses of the Massachusetts Legislature congratulating her for 25 years of contributions to the black community, the world, and Afro-American culture (1975); the Boston Chamber of Commerce arts award (1978); the Presidential Medal for the Arts (1983); and the Black History Achiever Award from Northeastern University (1988). More than 26 honorary degrees have been bestowed on her, including ones from Harvard University, Brown University, Colby College, the New England Conservatory of Music, Northeastern University, and the University of Massachusetts. She has been honored by many educational and arts societies, including the African Heritage Studies Association; the Black Big Brother Association; the Black Educators Alliance of Massachusetts; the Governor's Committee on the Status of Women; the Museum of Afro-American History, Boston; the National Association of Dance, Health, and Recreation; the National Council of Teachers of English; and the United States Department of Health, Education, and Welfare. Throughout her life, Elma Lewis has been an illustration of the truthfulness of the message she delivered to her students: "Glory in yourself. Anything is possible."