Before there was Althea Gibson, there was Lilyan Spencer.
Leon County is home to two trailblazing African American tennis legends. While one is a household name – and deservedly so – the other’s accomplishments have not found the spotlight as often.
But that’s all about to change. E. Lilyan Spencer will be honored at the inaugural Black-Tie Affair and Wall of Distinction Ceremony on January 16, 2025. Spencer will be one of 22 legends inducted into the museum’s Wall of Distinction. The event is a part of the Florida Civil Rights Museum project. You can check out the museum at www.floridacivilrightsmuseum.org.
Spencer’s story is one exceptional tennis talent and, later in life, strong leadership in education, as principal and athletic director at what was then Bond Junior High School. And it’s also a lasting tennis legacy only recently discovered almost 70 years after her death. As it turns out Spencer’s great nephew, Dr. DeArmas Graham is a principal and coach in St. John’s County. And great grand-niece Imani Graham is a tennis star in her own right, just turning pro after a distinguished college career at Xavier, including being unanimously named the 2024 Big East player of the year for the second straight season.
Talk about some powerful genes.
Lilyan Spencer played on the segregated national tennis circuit and went on to win state as well as national championships. She was an avid athlete in her 20s, playing on the segregated national tennis circuit and winning ten (10) state championships, as well as a national championship. As of 1954, Ms. Spencer was the only Florida woman to win honors in national competition, according to the St. Petersburg Times (now Tampa Bay Times). Playing professional tennis throughout the 1930s, she was the Florida Tennis Association (FTA) Women’s Singles Champion in 1931. In addition to this achievement, she was holder of the State Women’s Singles Title for 10 years without suffering a defeat in competition. Spencer’s greatest accomplishment was when she won a national tennis title at the 1937 Southern Open Championship, also known as the 21st American Tennis Association (ATA) Nationals, held at Tuskegee Institute. Ms. Spencer and Bertha Isaacs (1900-1997), of Nassau, Bahamas, won the Women’s Doubles match. Her championship feat is mentioned in an exhibit of the International Tennis Hall of Fame entitled: “Breaking the Barriers: The ATA and Black Tennis Pioneers.”
It would be almost 15 years later that another African American tennis star with Tallahassee roots – Althea Gibson – broke the color barrier in professional tennis in 1950, eventually winning a Grand Slam title in 1957, the year Spencer died.
Meanwhile, after Spencer’s career ended, she moved into education, first as a teacher, and eventually as Bond principal where her mere presence was usually enough to get students in line.
“All she had to do was appear,” said the late M. Lucile Williams (principal of Bond, 1973-1981) in 1996, who taught under Spencer between 1949 and 1950. “She had things in check.” Williams said Spencer set high standards for both her students and her staff. She demanded excellence and accepted no excuses when it came to truancy. Her diligent and determined work regarding student absenteeism kept many students in school, even taking students into her home who were less fortunate.
But her service extended far beyond the classroom. Spencer played an integral role in the establishment of the Bond Community Credit Union, an organization for which she served as Treasurer. In 1949, she chaired the Negro Division of the March of Dimes campaign to raise money for children with polio, having attended a special school to broaden her knowledge of the disease. She also assisted with arranging a drive for 168 black children to receive free medical examinations during National Negro Health Week in 1948. That year, Bond School received connection to city water services, which greatly reduced the risk of health hazards due to the contamination of well water. Enrollment more than tripled to nearly 700 students by the end of the decade, which necessitated the need for a new school plant. In addition to her role at Bond, Spencer ran a restaurant at 829 Eugenia Street, and was a real estate investor, who sold lots and mortgages to blacks as well whites in Tallahassee.
And, true to her sports roots, Spencer’s boys’ and girls’ basketball teams, both of which she coached, received statewide recognition and awards during her tenure. She eventually coached at Roulhac Negro High School in Chipley, Florida, where she was feted in 1954 by the Florida Interscholastic Coaches Association as being the best basketball coach in the state, and the only Florida woman to have won a national competition at that time.
Despite the remarkable contributions and accomplishments of E. Lilyan Spencer, following extensive research by Delaitre Hollinger, Co-Executive Director of the Florida Civil Rights Museum, Hollinger discovered Spencer was in an unmarked grave. He joined with Jacqueline Perkins, also Co-Executive Director of the museum, Curtis Taylor, President of the National Rattler “F” Club, and other FAMU alumni who pulled together their personal funds to mark her grave.
On January 24, 2025, Spencer’s grave in Oakland Cemetery will be marked in a 9 a.m. ceremony. At 10 a.m. that same day, Spencer will have an historical marker dedicated to her at the Tallahassee Urban League offices, 923 Old Bainbridge Road, Tallahassee. The marker will soon be placed at the site of her former home at the corner of Eugenia Street and FAMU Way, the first in an installment of the Florida Civil Rights Museum’s, Civil Rights and Education Heritage Trail. In March 2025, the City of Tallahassee will also host the Spencer family in the official dedication of E. Lilyan Spencer Memorial Way, which will be located on Campbell Street bordering Bond Elementary School.
