William H . Lewis William Henry Lewis ( November 28 , 1868 – January 1 , 1949 ) was an African - American pioneer in athletics , politics and law . He was the first African - American college football player , the first in the sport to be selected as an All - American , the first to be appointed as an Assistant United States Attorney , the first to become a member of the American Bar Association , and the first to serve as United States Assistant Attorney General . When he was appointed Assistant Attorney General in 1910 , it was reported to be " the highest office in an executive branch of the government ever held by a member of that race . " Before being appointed as the Assistant Attorney General , Lewis also served for 12 years as a football coach at Harvard University and was a noted expert and author of works on the game . Early years . Lewis was born in Berkley , Virginia in 1868 , the son of former slaves . His father moved the family to Portsmouth , where he became a respected minister . At age 15 , Lewis enrolled in the state ' s all - black college , the Virginia Normal and Collegiate Institute ( now Virginia State University ) . Football player and coach . Amherst College . With the assistance of Virginia Normal ' s president , John Mercer Langston , Lewis transferred to Amherst College , where he worked as a waiter to earn his college expenses . He also played football for Amherst for three seasons . In December 1890 , the Amherst team voted " almost unanimously " to elect Lewis as the team captain for his senior year , 1891 . He was also the class orator and the winner of prizes for oratory and debating . In his book about the racial integration of football , Alan Howard Levy cites Lewis as the first African - American football player and the 1888 Amherst team as the first integrated team in the history of the sport : " In 1888 the Amherst College football team had the first African American player . His name was William H . Lewis . . . . This was the first integration of an America college football team . " W . E . B . Du Bois went to the Amherst commencment ceremony to see Lewis and another African - American student receive their diplomas . All - American center at Harvard . After graduating from Amherst , Lewis enrolled at Harvard Law School . He played two years for the Harvard football team at the center position . An article published by the College Football Hall of Fame noted that , while Lewis " was relatively light for the position ( 175 pounds ) he played with intelligence , quickness and maturity . " He was named as the center on the College Football All - America Team in both years at Harvard . He was the first African - American to be honored as an All - American , and was named captain of the All - America team in 1893 . Yet , despite this renown , on one occasion when Lewis and the Harvard team entered a dining hall , the Princeton University football team rose as a group and exited in objection to the Negro player . In November 1893 , Harvard ' s team captain was unable to play in the last game of the season due to an injury . The game was Lewis ' s last college football game , and the team voted him as the acting captain for the game , making hi m Harvard ' s first African - American team captain . In announcing the All - America selections for " Harper ' s Weekly " , Casper Whitney wrote that " Lewis has proved himself to be not only the best centre in football this year , but the best all - round centre that has ever put on a football jacket . " And in 1900 Walter Camp named Lewis to his All - Time All America Team , noting that Lewis ' s quickness had revolutionized center play , placing the emphasis on " mobility rather than fixed stability . " In 2009 , he was elected to the College Football Hall of Fame . Football coach at Harvard . Following law school , Lewis was hired as a football coach at Harvard where he served from 1895 to 1906 . During his coaching tenure the team had a combined record of 114 – 15 – 5 . " The Boston Journal " wrote that Lewis was owed " much of the credit for the great defensive strength Harvard elevens have always shown . " Author and renowned expert on football . Lewis developed a reputation as one of the most knowledgeable experts on the game . In 1896 , Lewis published one of the first books on American football . It was called " A Primer of College Football , " published by Harper & Brothers , and serialized by " Harper ’ s Weekly " . Upon the book ' s release , one reviewer noted : " A new feature , hitherto inadequately treated by previous authors , is the exhaustive treatment of fundamentals or the rudiments of the game , such as passing , catching , dropping upon the ball , kicking , blocking , making holes , breaking through and tackling . There is also a treatise on ' avoiding injuries ' . . . There are scientific expositions of team play , offensive and defensive , and a supplementary chapter on training which will be useful . " In a 1904 article , " The Philadelphia Inquirer " placed Lewis on par with the legendary Walter Camp in his knowledge of the game : " The one man whom Harvard has to match Mr . Camp in football experience and general knowledge is William H . Lewis the famous Harvard centre of the early nineties and the man who is the recognized authority on defense in football the country over . " In 1905 , critics of football sought to ban it from college campuses , or to alter its rules to control its violent nature . Lewis published an editorial in which he wrote , " There is nothing the matter with football . . . . The game itself is one of the finest sports ever devised for the pastime of youth , and the pleasure of the public . " While opposing unnecessary roughness , Lewis argued against proposed changes , noting that he did not want to watch " a game of ping - pong or marbles upon the football field . " Lewis asserted that football should remain " a strenuous competition , a scientific game played according to the rules of the game with vigor and force , sincerity and earnestness . " Lewis later recalled , " There is no game like football . . . . If it hadn ' t been for football there is no telling what I would be today . . . . It gives you a general hardening and training which stands a man in good use in later life . " Politician and lawyer . Lewis was elected to the Cambridge City Council as a Republican where he served from 1899 - 1902 . He also served in the Massachusetts Legislature in 1903 . Lewis became a personal friend of President Theodore Roosevelt , a Harvard alumnus , and was a guest of Roosevelt ' s at Oyster Bay in 1900 . In 1903 the United States Attorney for Boston Henry P . Moulton , at the direction of Roosevelt , appointed Lewis as an Assistant United States Attorney , making him the first African - American to hold such a position . His appointment was reported in newspapers across the country . Some wrote that the appointment was an effort by Roosevelt to show that " his championing of the negro is not political and is not limited to the southern states . " " The New York Times " downplayed Lewis ' s race , noting , " Lewis is said to be so light in color that only his intimate friends know him to be a negro . " Some wrote that Roosevelt appointed Lewis in order to keep him in Boston , where he could continue coaching the Harvard football team . The author noted that Lewis " owes his appointment to the fact that he is an uncommonly good football coach and that President Roosevelt is a Harvard man . " Cornell has made several attempts to hire Lewis as its football coach . According to the story , Harvard men were " unwilling to lose Lewis ' s services in the football season , and they undertook to make his residence here so profitable that he would remain . " The article asserted that Lewis had been appointed as a member of the state legislature in 1902 for this reason , but lost his reelection campaign in 1903 . It was then that an appeal was made to the President , who , it was said , " knows well the great value of Lewis to Harvard ' s football interests and the real necessity of keeping such a good coach on hand . " First African - American Assistant Attorney General . In October 1910 , President William Howard Taft appointed Lewis as the United States Assistant Attorney General . The appointment sparked a national debate over the appointment of an African - American to such a high office . A North Carolina newspaper wrote that the " Lucky Colored Man " would hold the " Highest Public Office Ever Held by One of His Race . " The appointment was reported to be " the highest office in an executive branch of the government ever held by a member of that race . " " The Boston Journal " wrote that Lewis had received " the highest honor of the kind ever paid to a negro , " such that he then ranked in " a position of credit and influence second only to that occupied by Booker T . Washington . ” " The Washington Evening Star " concluded that the appointment of Lewis to " a higher governmental position than any heretofore given to a colored man " would result in a confirmation battle with southern Democrats . There was even a published report in December 1910 that opposition to Lewis was so strong that Taft had decided not to place Lewis ' s appointment before the Senate . However , Taft did not withdraw the nomination , and a Georgia newspaper predicted a " Hard Fight Is Coming " on the nomination : " Many southern members are firmly resolved that Lewis shall never be elevated to the high post of one of the five assistant attorneys general . The position carries with it a handsome salary , high social position and an entrée to White House functions . Whether or not Lewis would ever avail himself of these privileges , a number of southern Democrats feel that they do not want to be a party to elevating him to an eminence where such recognition would be his as a matter of official right . ” After a fight waged by southern Senators for more than two months , the Senate confirmed Lewis as Assistant Attorney General in June 1911 . After being sworn into office , Lewis went to the White House where he personally thanked President Taft for the high honor . Lewis ' s initial assignment was to defend the federal government against all Indian land depredation claims . Lewis was a frequent caller at the White House and regularly attended White House functions during the Taft administration . Ouster from the American Bar Association . In 1911 , Lewis also became the first African American to be admitted to the American Bar Association ( ABA ) . However , in September 1911 , Lewis faced a campaign for his ouster from the ABA . Though there was no racial restriction in the organization ' s charter , some threatened to secede from the organization if Lewis remained a member . Lewis ' s name had been submitted with others by the Massachusetts Bar Association , and his race had not been disclosed . The Southern delegates said they did not know he was a negro until he appeared in the convention hall . Lewis , who was " the first of his race to be so honored " , refused to resign . When the ABA ' s executive committee voted to oust Lewis in early 1912 , U . S . Attorney General George W . Wickersham sent a " spirited letter " to each of the 4 , 700 members of the ABA condemning the decision . While northern newspapers congratulated Lewis and Wickersham for their stance , a North Carolina newspaper criticized Lewis for his lack of " good manners " in refusing to resign : The insistence of William H . Lewis of Boston , now an Assistant Attorney General , that he retain his membership in the American Bar Association notwithstanding objections is due condemnation upon other grounds than those of race . He would probably not have been elected if it had been known by the majority of delegate who he was . Having thus slipped into an organization , he should offer his resignation pending a real decision of the matter . This is simply what any one elected to any manner of organization through any sort of ignorance or misapprehension is required by good manners to do . Lewis became an advocate for African Americans in the legal profession . During the fight over his removal from the ABA , Lewis published an article in which he wrote that many white men " know intimately only the depraved , ignorant , vicious negros – those who helped to keep the dockets filled . " He called for " an army of negro lawyers of strong hearts , cool heads , and sane judgment " , to help the large number of African Americans who were " exploited , swindled and misused " . Private law practice . Lewis ' s tenure as Assistant Attorney General ended with Taft ' s Presidency in 1913 . Taft recommended Lewis for appointment as a Massachusetts Superior Court judge , but the state ' s governor , Eugene Foss , declined to make the appointment . Lewis returned to Massachusetts and entered the private practice of law . He developed a reputation as an outstanding trial lawyer who also made appearances before the United States Supreme Court . He remained active in Republican politics while practicing law , and defended unpopular cases involving such matters as bootlegging , corruption , and racial discrimination . Civil rights leader and speaker . Throughout his career , Lewis was outspoken on issues of race and discrimination . After a white barber in Cambridge refused to shave Lewis , he filed a suit seeking $ 5 , 000 in damages and successfully lobbied for the passage of a Massachusetts law prohibiting racial discrimination in places of public accommodation . In 1902 , Lewis delivered an address on race relations to a gathering of Amherst College alumni . Lewis called race the " transcendent problem " facing the country : " Yesterday the United States waged a war for humanity when tyranny and oppression had grown intolerable . . . . Only a few hundreds of miles south of us are 10 , 000 , 000 people who are deprived of their rights , who are practically in a state of serfdom . Thousands of them have been lynched and shot for attempting to exercise the God given rights of every human being . The great Democratic party rolls on its honied tongue the sweet morsels of ‘ consent of the governed ’ and ‘ equality of man . ’ The Republican Party , progressive , patriotic , absorbed with expansion , is too busy to disturb the harmony of the spheres . They stand opposite making grimaces at each other ; one says ‘ Filipino ; ’ the other hasn ’ t the courage to say ‘ Nigger . ’ It is a beautiful game of football with the negro as the football . ” He delivered the commencement address to the Tuskegee Normal and Industrial Institute Class of 1910 urging them , despite adversity , to maintain their love for the South : ” Love your native Southland . Nine tenths of our people were born here . All our past is here . All our future is here . Here most of us will live and here pass to the great majority and be gathered to the ashes of our fathers . The most glorious history of our race is here in the Southland , the most glorious history of the negro race anywhere in the world is here . If we have suffered here , we have also achieved greatly here . Rejoice in everything Southern . ” While serving as Assistant Attorney General , Lewis learned that a young African - American graduate of Harvard had been refused employment at a prominent Boston trust company on account of race . In a speech to Boston business leaders , Lewis said : " In Boston the outlook for the negro is far worse than it has been since the Civil War . I think the blood of three signers of the Declaration of Independence and of the Abolitionists has run out . " He noted that , if he owned the majority of stock in a certain trust company , he would force the company to hire " the blackest man in Boston . " Lewis ' s speech reportedly drew " volumes of cheers " from the businessmen and " also from the colored waiters who cheered frequently . " Lewis was one of three individuals to deliver an address at Boston ' s Symphony Hall memorial to abolitionist Julia Ward Howe following her death in 1910 . In 1919 , Lewis was one of the signatories to a call published in the " New York Herald " for a National Conference on Lynching , intended to take concerted action against the widespread practice of lynching and lawlessness in certain states . Death . Lewis died in Boston of heart failure on January 1 , 1949 . He was interred at Mt . Auburn Cemetery , Cambridge , Massachusetts . Additional sources . Bond , Gregory . " The Strange Career of William Henry Lewis . " " Out of the Shadows : A Biographical History of African American Athletes . " Edited by David K . Wiggins . ( Little Rock , Arkansas : University of Arkansas Press , 2006 ) , pages 39 – 57 .