This week, college students across the country are heading home for Thanksgiving break to spend time with their families and rest before returning to campus for the final stretch of the semester. In November 1913, however, freshman Jean Snowden remained on campus at Howard University in Washington, D.C., where she recorded the exciting events of Thanksgiving day in her diary.
“Thursday was a gala day for all,” she began. “Excitement prevailed everywhere,” with the atmosphere on campus jubilant and rowdy in anticipation of the Thanksgiving football game between Howard University and Lincoln University. “The girls had a rabble” and marched behind the band (“we actually have a band[!]”), before gathering on the sidelines to yell and cheer for the White and Blue of Howard.
Although the game ended in a scoreless tie, high spirits continued throughout the evening as the students tucked in to their “big Thanksgiving dinner – Turkey, cranberries, celery, potatoes, peas and mince meat pie – very good it was.”
A dance was planned for after the meal. Snowden “had not planned to go… but after a little contemplation” – and being asked by a potential suitor, “Parker” – “[I] got dressed at [the] last minute” and went with a friend. “I am truly glad I went,” Snowden writes, “for I received many compliment[s] and danced every dance.”
“First dance, with a freshman, 2nd with Mr Kelly Miller Jr. He asked me twice for a dance. He is quite a little dancer; third with J. A. Taylor – football manager; fourth, with a football fellow, and the fifth was to have been with Mr Bumgartner but I forgot about my promise since I had no dance card and gave it to someone else.”
The dance takes a sweetly romantic turn for Snowden after intermission, when she finally sees Parker, the young man who had initially asked her to the dance.
“He at once planned the only dance I had left with me for we were determined to dance together… [Parker] amused me for he kept his eyes on me all [the] time – smiling constantly, called me ‘cuteness’ and when we took our dance, it was ‘some dance.’ I have never enjoyed one better… We both regretted when it ended and we knew we must be leaving. He accompanied me home and what a happy smile adorns my face.”
Jean Snowden graduated from Howard University’s Teachers College in June 1914 with a two-year degree certificate in Kindergarten education. She then proceeded to earn her Bachelor of Science in Education, graduating from Howard University’s Teachers College in 1916. Although Snowden never married, and we don’t know what ultimately became of her affection for Parker, he’s fondly mentioned in subsequent diary entries throughout the rest of the year. Snowden confesses in her diary that she “like[s] him after all,” and that she will “long remember Thanksgiving for he filled it all.”
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“November 1913…” Jean Snowden, diary entry, November 26, 1913, 5 pages. Box 2, Anna Jean Snowden Papers, Manuscript Division, Library of Congress.
“scoreless tie…” For more on the 1913 Thanksgiving football game between Howard University and Lincoln University, see Howard University Journal 11, no. 9 (December 5, 1913).
“Parker…” Although his full name is never mentioned and he is only referred to in the diary as “P.” or “Parker,” one possibility for this young man’s identity could be James Wesley Parker, who graduated with his M.D. from Howard University’s Medical College in 1915, as listed in the Howard University 1915 Commencement program
“certificate in Kindergarten education.” 1914 Commencement program, Howard University.
“in 1916.” 1916 Commencement program, Howard University.