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One Man’s Journey To Use History To Change The Present
I met Edwin Bancroft Henderson II at an airport three years ago. As we sat across from each other, we connected through a shared interest, symbolized by the Africa pendant dangling on my chest.
I reached out to connect with him because of another shared interest, history, particularly, using history to affect the present and the future.
Beginnings
Edwin and I discussed how his life, steeped in history, has led him to where he is today. He’s the founder/president of Henderson House and Founder/Director of the Tinner Hill Heritage Foundation. The is former a museum, and the latter a nonprofit; both aim to preserve and promote African-American history in Falls Church, Virginia, the town his grandparents are from.
But it took a journey full of twists and turns for him to get there.
Edwin was born in 1955 at the John A. Andrew Memorial Hospital on the Tuskegee Institute (now Tuskegee University) campus — the famed school founded by civil rights icon Booker T. Washington. Edwin’s grandfather was Edwin Bancroft (EB) Henderson, a civil rights leader who founded of the Falls Church branch of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). EB became known as the “Father of Black Basketball” and — through Edwin’s persistent, well-documented lobbying — was posthumously inducted into the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame because of his work introducing the sport to African-Americans.
Being from such a historical place, coupled with his family background, developed Edwin’s appreciation for history and culture.
Edwin returned to his birthplace to receive a bachelor’s in History from Tuskegee University. But his father and grandfather’s interest in photography had been passed down to Edwin. So after graduating, he moved to California to study photography and television, eventually forming his own production company: Light Sketcher Productions.
He mentioned that during his time as a freelance photographer and entrepreneur, he learned lessons that would prove valuable years…
