“As a Black woman, how do you make a pathway for you and your family when people don’t see or value you?” Quarkume asks. “What I love about this book is that you see a woman who enrolled and graduated from Howard and returned to Howard to be part of the future for Black women in higher education. Reading her thoughts, seeing how she pushed forward for Black women, is a story we should all honor.” 

The Blueprint Behind Slowe's Work

While Howard University catalyzed and incubated Slowe’s light, it also challenges it.  

The essays showcase both Slowe’s public and private thoughts: an unpublished 1930 “philosophy of life” map; her speech at the first-ever Howard Women’s Dinner in 1922; and a1925 letter acknowledging her $3,300 salary was $200 lesser than other University deans. ($3,300 in 1925 rounds out to approximately $59,000 today.) 

“She had the title of the Dean of Women at Howard, but there were many times where she’d walk into a room and there wouldn’t be a seat for her, her presence wasn’t always honored, but she kept on at it,” Quarkume says. “Knowing the boldness that it took her to even get that far, hopefully it will give us courage and understanding to how much work we have to do.” 

Quarkume praised the interdisciplinary, University-wide effort to create the Slowe’s collection. The Moorland-Spingarn Research Center granted Quarkume access to Slowe’s original works that were first donated by Morgan State University in 1966.  

“I’m very thankful to Moorland-Spingarn for keeping our history and allowing us to see our greatness over time,” Quarkume says. “Despite the cloud, AI, screenshots and other digital technologies we must   young generations should continue to physically document what they do whether it’s to preserve your humanity and tell your own story, to be saved later on it such achieves. At Howard, we have the medicine, law, political science, entertainment fields on our campus and that’s something so unique. We should embrace that more as we speak to, from, and for the Black world to the rest of the world.”  

Lucy Lives On

As she closes the work behind “Her Truth and Service,” Quarkume says there is still more to be done and hopes readers connect with Slowe’s perseverance. Quarkume hopes the book portrays Slowe’s namesake, acting as a light in the dark for those unsure on how to advance society and solve its issues.  

Slowe’s legacy lives on. Howard’s student body is now 70% female, over half of the University Deans are women. Slowe’s commitment to make Howard more inclusive for others constructed the seats in which Black women students sit today. “Her Truth and Service” reads as a transcript that helped materialize these opportunities.  

“The story of Lucy Diggs Slowe is one of metamorphosis, revelations, and profundity, on the part of the reader and the subject,” Quarkume writes in her introduction.”