Eva del Vakia Bowles

Eva del Vakia Bowles (1875 – 1943) was an American teacher and a Young Women's Christian Association organizer in New York City. When she began working at the New York City colored YWCA in Harlem, she became the first black woman to be a general secretary of the organization. For eighteen years she organized black branches of the YWCA and expanded their services to community members. She received recognition from former president Theodore Roosevelt for her work during World War I on behalf of the colored Y.

Eva del Vakia Bowles
1918
Born(1875-01-24)January 24, 1875
Albany, Athens County, Ohio
DiedJune 14, 1943(1943-06-14) (aged 68)
Richmond, Virginia
NationalityAmerican
Other namesEva D. Bowles
Occupationeducator, social worker, organizer
Years active1905–1943
Known forfirst black women to hold the position of general secretary of the YWCA

Early life

Eva del Vakia Bowles was born on January 24, 1875, in Albany, Ohio to Mary Jane (née Porter) and John Hawkes Bowles. Her father was the first black principal of a school in Marietta, Ohio and later served as one of the first black railroad postal clerks in Ohio. Her paternal grandfather, John Randolph Bowles was a Baptist minister and served as the chaplain of the 55th Massachusetts Infantry Regiment during the civil war.[1] After attending public schools in Albany, Bowles went on to continue her education at Bliss Business College in Columbus while taking summer classes at Ohio State University.[2][3][4]

Career

Bowles began her career as a teacher at several black colleges: Chandler Normal School in Lexington, Kentucky; St. Augustine’s College of Raleigh, North Carolina, and St. Paul’s School in Lawrenceville, Virginia.[5][3] In 1905, while she was teaching in Virginia, Bowles was approached by Addie Waites Hunton, whose husband William was secretary of the Colored Young Men's Christian Association (YMCA) of Harlem. Hunton recruited Bowles to spearhead a project for the sister project, the YWCA association of New York, to address the needs of black women.[2][1][6] When she took up the post, later that year, Bowles became the first black woman employed as a YWCA secretary in the United States.[2][7] In 1908, she studied social work at Columbia University in the school of philanthropy.[5][2]

After her studies, Bowles became a caseworker at the Associated Charities of Columbus, Ohio between 1908 and 1912.[8] She returned to New York in 1913 to serve as secretary on the national board of the YWCA's Subcommittee for Colored Work. Bowles was charged with increasing services to black women. Despite segregation, she proposed that each town have only one "Y", as typically white branches had better access to funding and facilities. While it made black branches subordinate to white women's direction and barred them from many of the facilities, Bowles was convinced that the structure would give women of both races the opportunity to work together. During World War I, the YWCA provided funds to further expand services in the black communities and open industrial work centers, as well as recreational facilities. They also opened fifteen canteens, facilities to provide entertainment for soldiers and their families.[2] Bowles recruitment was so successful that she increased the black staff from one to over sixty and was awarded $4,000 with an accommodation for her work from former president Theodore Roosevelt from his Nobel Prize funds.[9]

Bowles continued to press the national board for more representation of black women at the local and national levels. In 1924, they gained the first representative on the national board and she was also successful in increasing the headquarter's black staff to nine members with three black field workers.[2] She traveled the country opening YWCA branches and also pressed for the organization to expand their work in Africa and the Caribbean.[5][2] In 1932, she resigned from the YWCA, having become disillusioned with their reorganization plans.[2][10] Bowles had already been working for the National Colored Merchants Association, as association secretary, and the National Negro Business League, as chair of the women’s auxiliary. When she left the YWCA, she joined their joint offices as an employee to help improve the economic opportunities of blacks.[10][11] In 1943, at the onset of World War II, Bowles was named Executive Director of Civilian Defense for the Harlem and Riverside areas of New York City.[12]

Death and legacy

Bowles died June 14, 1943, at the Richmond Community Hospital in Richmond, Virginia, while on a visit to see her niece.[5] The archives of the YWCA contain materials concerning Bowles work to expand the YWCA in the African American communities as well as her work during the First World War.[2]

References

Citations
  1. Bracks & Smith 2014, pp. 26-27.
  2. Jones 2000.
  3. Robertson 2007, p. 192.
  4. The New York Age 1916, p. 7.
  5. The New York Age 1943, p. 1.
  6. The Kansas City Sun 1914, p. 4.
  7. The New York Age 1916, p. 1.
  8. Commire & Klezmer 2007.
  9. The New York Age 1918, p. 1.
  10. The New York Age & April 30, 1932, p. 1.
  11. The New York Age & June 11, 1932, p. 1.
  12. The New York Age & January 16, 1943, p. 4.

Bibliography
  • Appiah, Kwame Anthony; Gates, Henry Louis Gates (2005). Africana: The Encyclopedia of the African and African American Experience. Oxford University Press. pp. 598–9. ISBN 978-0-19-517055-9.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
  • Bracks, Lean'tin L.; Smith, Jessie Carney (2014). Black Women of the Harlem Renaissance Era. Lanham, Maryland: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers. ISBN 978-0-8108-8543-1.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
  • Commire, Anne; Klezmer, Deborah (2007). Dictionary of Women Worldwide: 25,000 Women Through the Ages. Detroit, Michigan: Thomson Gale. ISBN 978-0-7876-7585-1. Archived from the original on 2018-11-14 – via HighBeam Research.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
  • Hutson, Jean Blackwell (1971). "Bowles, Eva del Vakia". In Edward T. James; Janet Wilson James; Paul S. Boyer (eds.). Notable American Women, 1607–1950: A Biographical Dictionary. Harvard University Press. p. 214. ISBN 978-0-674-62734-5.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
  • "Eva Del Vakia Bowles". Humanities & Social Sciences Online. East Lansing, Michigan: Michigan State University. 28 Feb 2002. Archived from the original on 2 February 2017. Retrieved 2 February 2017. republished from Jones, Adrienne Lash. (February 2000) "Bowles, Eva Del Vakia" American National Biography Online Oxford, England: for the American Council of Learned Societies by Oxford University Press.
  • Robertson, Nancy Marie (2007). Christian Sisterhood, Race Relations, and the YWCA, 1906-46. Urbana, Illinois: University of Illinois Press. ISBN 978-0-252-03193-9.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
  • Rummel, Jack (2014). African-American Social Leaders and Activists. Infobase Publishing. pp. 16–17. ISBN 978-1-4381-0782-0.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
  • Russell, Annie (2008). "Bowles, Eva del Vakia". In Susan Hill Lindley; Eleanor J. Stebner (ed.). The Westminster Handbook to Women in American Religious History. Westminster John Knox Press. p. 22. ISBN 978-0-664-22454-7.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
  • "$400,000 to Be Spent for Work among Colored Girls". The New York Age. New York City, New York. September 28, 1918. p. 1. Retrieved 2 February 2017 – via Newspapers.com.
  • "Development of the Colored Y.W.C.A". The New York Age. New York City, New York. March 16, 1916. p. 1. Retrieved 2 February 2017 – via Newspapers.com. and "Development of the Colored Y.W.C.A. (part 2)". The New York Age. New York City, New York. March 16, 1916. p. 7. Retrieved 2 February 2017 – via Newspapers.com.
  • "Heads Civilian Defense". The New York Age. New York City, New York. January 16, 1943. p. 4. Retrieved 2 February 2017 – via Newspapers.com.
  • "Leaves Y.W.C.A. Work". The New York Age. New York City, New York. April 30, 1932. p. 1. Retrieved 2 February 2017 – via Newspapers.com.
  • "Miss Eva D. Bowles Inducted into Office as Full-Time Worker for C.M.A. Stores and Business League". The New York Age. New York City, New York. June 11, 1932. p. 1. Retrieved 2 February 2017 – via Newspapers.com.
  • "Miss Eva D. Bowles, Pioneer Y Worker, Dies in Richmond". The New York Age. New York City, New York. June 19, 1943. p. 1. Retrieved 2 February 2017 – via Newspapers.com.
  • "Y.W.C.A. Notes". Kansas City, Missouri: The Kansas City Sun. April 11, 1914. p. 4. Retrieved 2 February 2017 – via Newspapers.com.
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