Evening star., 1954-03-31
By jones G. Deone

Edwin B. Henderson will tell
syou the thing he enjoys most in
the world perhaps. is fishing.
/ For the last so years. he has
been able to do much less of it
2than he would have liked. but
soon that situation will be cor
erected.
Mr.. Henderson. since 1924,
has been head of physical edu-
cation in the Districts colored
public schools, He became a
teacher in 1904, a fact that now
makes him the second-ranking
'employe of the school system in
length of service. He also has
the distinction of having been
the first Negro man to teach
physical education in the public
schools here OF. to his knowledge,
anywhere in America.
Next June, when the current
term ends, he will retire. And
his fellow school officials, as well
as numerous teachers and many
present students too, are aware
they will be losing the fellow
ship of an enthusiastic and re-
Spected educator.
Started With Bean-Bag.
Mr.. Henderson, who often is
called "doctor"-a hangover, as
he puts it, from three years he
once put in studying medicine
started out his career at the
bottom. For the first two years
he spent two days a week teach
ing in the old M Street High
School and the other three.
teaching f1rSt-graderS such sports
as bean-bag.
He got into teaching from the
old Miner Normal School, now
Miner Teachers College. He also
went to M Street High, later
superseded by Dunbar, and
earlier the old Randall. Bowen
and Bell Buildings, all Of which
have now gone except M Street
which is the present Perry Ele-
mentary. Those were the days
of horse-cars, and children
invariably walked to school, a
trait Mr.. Henderson thinks there
ought to be more Of nowadays.
He was born in the Southwest
section and remembers with
some pride playing with the late
AL Jolson who also lived there as
a boy. Another fact he is proud
of is that his grandfather. An
drew Hicks. was a full-blooded
Powhatan Indian.
Bicycle Influenced Assignments.
AS a young teacher, he did not
invariably walk. The other
physical training teachers, at
the time we're all women. and
Mr.. Henderson recalls:
Because I had a bicycle, they
gave me the outside schools. I
went to Garfield and Chain
Bridge, and they let the women
go to the closer ones"
After two years, mushrooming
high school enrolment caused
his transfer to full-time work on
the higher level.
Physical education then was
much different from now. In
structors usually had little
formal training in the subject.
There was nothing like the
elaborate present-day program
which includes, besides Or
ganized exercise, classes on
health and hygiene. And the
only important sport when Mr..
Henderson began teaching in
high school was baseball.
Waiting on the table got him
through three summers at
Harvard's summer school, where
movement toward more Scien-
tif1c training was starting. And
Harvard also taught him about
basketball, which Mr.. Hender-
son also encountered at the
white YMCA here. He or
ganized the first basketball at
the Twelfth street colored "Y, +"
coaching and playing center for
two years on a team that bowled
over out-of-toWn competition.
ROugher Game Then.
Basketball is a sissy game to-
day compared to then" he re-
calls. 1T was almost like foot
ball. If you knocked a man
down in the game or ran into
him, you might or might not be
fouled."
During his early years he or
ganized the first colored inter-
scholastic athletic conference,