Edwin Bancroft Henderson, African-American Athletes, and the Writing of Sport History

CHARLES DREW, WHO ATTENDED the prestigious Dunbar High School in Washington, D.C., later starred in several sports at Amherst College, and eventually became a famous surgeon and blood bank pioneer, noted in a 1940 letter that he was very grateful to Edwin Bancroft Henderson. “I owe you and a few other men like you,” Drew noted, “for setting most of the standards that I have felt were worthwhile, the things I have lived by and for and whenever possible have attempted to pass on.” ¹ Drew's comments, which came nearly ten years before his death in a tragic automobile accident, stemmed from an obviously deep admiration for Henderson, who had been both his teacher and mentor during his days as a student in Washington's segregated school system. ²