Perform and Empower: Memorializing Elma Ina Lewis

A Brief History of Elma Lewis

Elma Ina Lewis was born in Roxbury, Massachusetts on September 15, 1921. Her parents were Barbadian. They immigrated to the United States earlier in the twentieth century.[1] Lewis’s parents were involved in Marcus Garvey’s United Negro Movement Association when she was a child. In an interview with Diana Korzenik, Lewis explained that Garvey’s values influenced her own and gave her a “terrible sense of the effect that people’s culture has upon that people’s psyche.”[2] Lewis was trained to perform from a young age, learning voice, piano, and dance.[3] She recalled that she began reading poetry and earning a hefty salary for it at only eleven years old.[4]

Lewis was a product of Boston’s school system. She attended Roxbury Memorial High School for Girls for her secondary education.[5] She chose Emerson College for her undergraduate degree, influenced by her elocution teacher, Miss Muzzie, an alumnus of the college.[6] She earned her Bachelor of Arts from Emerson in 1943. A year later in 1944, Lewis earned her master’s degree from Boston University, having focused on the education of exceptional children.[7]

Before founding her own fine arts school in 1950, Lewis put her academic and theatrical training to good use and excelled in a variety of positions. According to the Boston Women’s Heritage Trail website, Lewis taught speech therapy at several medical institutions after attaining her B.A., including the New England Hospital. She also taught in the arts at the Harriet Tubman House, the League of Women for Community Service, and the Cambridge Community Center.[8] She was dedicated to contributing to her community using her various skills.

In 1950, Lewis launched the Elma Lewis School of Fine Arts (ELSFA) in Roxbury, Massachusetts. The curricula of ELSFA emphasized teaching music and dancing skills.[9] Lewis saw such skills as not only intrinsically valuable for her students, but also as practical training for a potential future career.[10] In 1966, Lewis started the Elma Lewis Playhouse-in-the-Park program. Before officially launching this program, Lewis’s ELSFA students participated in the city’s summer programming at Franklin Park. Until Lewis was able to mobilize community support to clean up the park, such programming took place in the ruins at the park. Franklin Park was designed by Frederick Law Olmsted and Lewis was unwilling to let the community space languish. She led a clean-up of the park, not only to improve the area for summer performances, but also because she believed it was the community’s responsibility to beautify the space.[11] In 1968, Lewis founded the National Center of Afro-American Artists (NCAAA). In 1970, she started an associated museum, the NCAAAM, as a “repository for black culture” and heritage.[12] As evidence of Lewis’s positive relationships with others in the Boston community, she purchased the buildings that housed the NCAAA from the Conservative Judaism in Boston group for only one dollar, despite the buildings’ $1,125,000 appraisal.[13]

Throughout her life, Lewis participated endlessly in community efforts aimed at improving the wellbeing of and opportunities for Black Americans. Her schools took advantage of anti-poverty grants and initiatives to fund their programs and to educate new students.[14] Lewis fearlessly reached out to businessmen, politicians, and schools to support her efforts with their time and/or money.[15] Lewis was a proud advocate of the Black community during a period of growing racial awareness, saying “Black people are beginning to be proud to identify with their black brothers.”[16] Lewis also stood prominently opposed to instances of police brutality and discrimination in Roxbury. She spoke out about her beliefs, quoted as saying “If you are living in an apartment building where a Negro cannot rent, you are aiding segregation. Or if you work for an employer who will not hire a Negro, you are aiding segregation.”[17] Lewis’s heartfelt beliefs were the fuel driving her actions.

Lewis received a significant number of awards and recognitions throughout her life, indicative of her widespread positive impact. This list includes but is not limited to receiving more than twenty honorary doctorates; designation as a Visionary Elder by the JFK Center for Performing Arts; recipient of the Presidential Medal for Arts from President Reagan; recipient of the MacArthur Genius Grant; election to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences; recipient of the Commonwealth Award; and membership to the Congressional Black Caucus, the Metropolitan Cultural Alliance, and the NAACP.[18]

After living a long and full life, Lewis died of complications from diabetes on January 1, 2004. Her legacy lives on in the institutions she founded and the lives and structures she helped to change.
[1] “Elma Lewis,” National Center of Afro-American Artists, National Center of Afro-American Artists, 2021, https://ncaaa.org/welcome-to-the-ncaaa/elma-lewis/.
[2] Diana Korzenik and Elma Lewis, “A Blend of Marcus Garvey and the 92nd Street Y: An Interview with Elma Lewis,” Art Education 35, no. 2 (March 1982): 26, https://www.jstor.org/stable/3192606.
[3] “Elma Lewis,” Boston Women’s Heritage Trail, Boston Women’s Heritage Trail, 2021, https://bwht.org/elma-lewis/.
[4] Korzenik and Lewis, “A Blend of Marcus Garvey,” 25.
[5] “Elma Lewis,” Boston Women’s Heritage Trail.
[6] “Elma Lewis,” Boston Women’s Heritage Trail; Korzenik and Lewis, “A Blend of Marcus Garvey,” 25.
[7] “Elma Lewis,” Boston Women’s Heritage Trail.
[8] Ibid.
[9] “Elma Lewis,” National Center of Afro-American Artists.
[10] Margo Miller, "Boston: Home of the Homeless Ballet," Boston Globe (1960-), Nov 01, 1968, https://link.ezproxy.neu.edu/login?url=https://www.proquest.com/historical-newspapers/boston-home-homeless-ballet/docview/366621550/se-2?accountid=12826.
[11] Gloria Negri, “Join the Cleanup Today,” Boston Globe (1960-), Jun 14, 1969, https:// link.ezproxy.neu.edu/login?url=https://www.proquest.com/historical-newspapers/join-cleanup-today/docview/506154588/se-2?accountid=12826.  
[12] “Elma Lewis,” National Center of Afro-American Artists.
[13] Alan Lupo, "$1 Million Gift of Jewish Group: Negro Art School Given 2 Buildings," Boston Globe (1960-), Apr 18, 1968, https://link.ezproxy.neu.edu/login?url=https://www.proquest.com/historical-newspapers/1-million-gift-jewish-group/docview/366611315/se-2?accountid=12826.
[14] Janet Riddell, "A Dream of Elves, Donkeys, Queens--and a Community," Boston Globe (1960-), Sep 07, 1966, https://link.ezproxy.neu.edu/login?url=https://www.proquest.com/historical-newspapers/dream-elves-donkeys-queens-community/docview/366654881/se-2?accountid=12826.
[15] "Lewis School Asks Harvard Aid," Boston Globe (1960-), Jun 22, 1968, https://link.ezproxy.neu.edu/login?url=https://www.proquest.com/historical-newspapers/lewis-school-asks-harvard-aid/docview/366879076/se-2?accountid=12826; "Elma Lewis, Senators Ask Businessmen to Aid Center," Boston Globe (1960-), Nov 19, 1968, https://link.ezproxy.neu.edu/login?url=httF(?)ps://www.proquest.com/historical-newspapers/elma-lewis-senators-ask-businessmen-aid-center/docview/366582180/se-2?accountid=12826.
[16] "Roxbury's Cry: 'Action, Now!'," Boston Globe (1960-), Mar 19, 1968, https://link.ezproxy.neu.edu/login?url=https://www.proquest.com/historical-newspapers/roxburys-cry-action-now/docview/366526432/se-2?accountid=12826.
[17] "Eloquent Rights Plea Starts: What More can be Said?", Boston Globe (1960-), Nov 20, 1963, https://link.ezproxy.neu.edu/login?url=https://www.proquest.com/historical-newspapers/eloquent-rights-plea-starts-what-more-can-be-said/docview/276550264/se-2?accountid=12826.
[18] “Elma Lewis,” Boston Women’s Heritage Trail.
Image citation: Spencer Grant, Elma Lewis at City Hall ceremony honoring black artists, Boston, 1972, photograph, Digital Commonwealth, https://ark.digitalcommonwealth.com/ark:/50959/2z10wq38v.

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