Melvin Rideout and YMCA

This lantern slide shows two images: the YMCA in Washington, D.C., and a portrait of Melvin Bragdon Rideout, who graduated in 1893 from the International YMCA Training School, now known as Springfield College.After graduation, Rideout worked as a physical director at YMCAs in Paris, France, Washington, D.C., and Rome, Italy. He is credited with having brought basketball to England and France when he served as the French delegate at the June 1894 YMCA Jubilee Convention. Rideout died on November 26, 1957. William Chauncey Langdon founded the YMCA of the city of Washington in 1852. A year later his friend, Anthony Bowen, established the first African-American YMCA in the world. For nearly the first forty years of its existence, the “Colored” YMCA existed independent of the YMCA of the City of Washington, and their activities were restricted to meetings in rented space, donated rooms, and members’ living rooms. With determination and dedication,the Anthony Bowen YMCA was reorganized as a branch of the YMCA of the City of Washington in 1905. Following this reformation, the Twelfth Street Branch was developed and opened in 1912, giving African-American men the opportunity to experience all of the amenities of a full-service YMCA facility. This branch was officially desegregated in 1922, and for the next fifty years, it was the only YMCA facility in the District serving African-Americans. In 1982, after seventy years at the historic 12th Street branch, the Association moved a few blocks away to a facility better suited the needs of the community.Text on border reads, "Washington Rideout.