(May 27, 1897-Mar. 22, 1968). Violet Temple Lewis was born in Lima, Ohio, to William David Harrison and Eva Brown Harrison. She graduated from Lima High School in 1915 and the secretarial program at Wilberforce University, a private Historically Black University located in Wilberforce, Ohio, in 1917.
Sometime in 1918, Lewis began working as a secretary to the president of Selma University in Selma, Alabama. After noticing the lack of secretarial classes, Lewis requested permission to initiate and teach secretarial courses. The university agreed, giving her a position as an instructor in the university’s business department.
To be closer to her family in Ohio, Lewis gained employment as a bookkeeper at the Company in Indianapolis, Indiana.
In 1920, she married Thomas Garfield Lewis, a self-employed house painter, carpenter, janitor, and classical musician. That year she left her job at the Walker Company for employment at the .
During her employment at the Walker Company and the Indianapolis Recorder, Lewis took note of the dearth of Black women employed as secretaries. In 1927, Lewis left the Indianapolis Recorder and started working for businessman, . Lewis pitched her idea to open a secretarial school for African Americans. In response, Ferguson offered three months rent-free use of one of his storefronts to establish the school within that time frame.
On January 28, 1928, Lewis opened her eponymous school, Lewis Business School, Indianapolis’ first predominantly Black institution of higher education. Unable to attract enough students to attend her school, she eventually moved it from Ferguson’s building into her family’s home.
In 1930, Lewis became the first African American stenographer to work for the Indiana General Assembly. She continued to build her school’s enrollment by bartering tuition for childcare and evening meals.
At the same time, Lewis started a radio program in 1932 to boost the exposure of her school and gain more students. Her program, The Negro Melody Hour, made her the first Black female radio announcer in Indiana. Her gamble paid off with an increase in student enrollment. The boost in enrollment allowed her to move her school out of her family’s home back to Ferguson’s building.
Lewis opened several businesses in Indianapolis. In 1936, she opened a nut shop, a letter shop, and an ice cream parlor. Each of her businesses hired Lewis Business School students so they could get practical work experience.
By 1938, Lewis opened a branch of the school in Detroit, Michigan. There her business school blossomed due to the growing automobile industry and the need for women with secretarial skills.
Lewis closed her Indianapolis school in 1940 but not before steering the school from a nine-month stenographic course to an accredited junior college. She was a cofounder of Gamma Phi Delta sorority in 1943 and received a posthumous honorary doctorate from her alma mater Wilberforce University.
In Detroit, the Lewis College of Business was officially designated a Historically Black University in 1987. It remained in operation until 2015. In 2022, it reopened as the Pensole Lewis College of Business & Design.
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