William H. Lewis

William H. Lewis. All-American Football Player, Lawyer, and Public Official. , William H. Lewis, a graduate of Harvard Law School, was the first African American to serve as assistant attorney general of the United States., Born in Berkeley, Virginia, Lewis went to public schools in nearby Portsmouth, where his father was a Baptist minister. After attending the Virginia Normal and Technical Institute, he enrolled at Amherst College, where he played football and was chosen orator of his graduating class in 1892. , Lewis graduated from Harvard Law School in 1895, two years after his friend Clement Morgan. While at Harvard, he was considered the best center in the history of its football team. He was also the first African American named to Walter Camp's all-time All-American team, and after graduation he helped coach the Harvard team for several years., Lewis, a Republican, served on the Cambridge Common Council from 1899 to 1901 and then in the legislature for one term. During that time he married Elizabeth Baker of Cambridge, a student at Wellesley College, and built this house on Upland Road., In the 1890s, Lewis joined Clement Morgan, W.E.B. Du Bois, William Monroe Trotter, George W. Forbes, and Emery T. Morris in the discussions that led to the founding of the Niagara Movement, the forerunner of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). In 1903, however, Lewis joined the more conservative Bookerites, as those who subscribed to Booker T. Washington's accommodationist views were known., Lewis lost his legislative seat in the Democratic sweep of 1902, but with Washington's help was appointed by President Theodore Roosevelt as assistant U.S. attorney in Boston. In 1911, President William Howard Taft named him assistant attorney general. This was the highest government position thus far achieved by an African American., After Woodrow Wilson, a Democrat, won the 1912 election, Lewis returned to Boston to practice law. While no longer influential in politics, he often took difficult cases involving African Americans., The Lewis family moved to Dedham around 1930, after William H. Lewis, Jr., graduated from Harvard College. Lewis died in Boston on New Year's Day, 1949., Related Cambridge African American Trail Markers: , WEB Du Bois, 20 Flagg Street , Clement G. Morgan, 265 Prospect Street , Emery T. Morris, 30 Parker Street, Sources , Amherst College archives photograph collection , Boston Herald, January 5, 1949 , Rayford W. Logan and Michael R Winston, eds. Dictionary of American Negro Biography, 1982 , Clement Richardson, The National Cyclopedia of the Colored Race, 1919 reprinted 1970, Cambridge Discovery Inc. , Cambridge Historical Commission