To become a member of the “League”, a man (women could not join) had to be proposed by one member and seconded by another. The league was not going to allow professionals to prejudice their national championships. The league was populated by the “right people” in New York society.

American Fencing Magazine, Fall 2005

The first colored people in American fencing fenced in New Orleans, Louisiana.

A man known as Black Austin was a free Negro fencing master in New Orleans in the 1800’s. Robert Severin, a mulatto fencing master, also taught in New Orleans, as did Basil Croquere, another mulatto fencing master,” the most remarkable colored fencing master of Louisiana”, wrote Stuart O. Landry in his dueling in old New Orleans c. 1950. But New Orleans was an exception as it refused to join the league until 1940 and it’s Fencers’ Federation of New Orleans held international tournaments open to professionals and amateurs from all over the world with no entry fee.

But our fencing association had no people with color for many years.

Here is an excerpt from the Riposte Magazine, the fencing magazine prior to American Fencing.

American Fencing Potentialities

It is estimated that there are between 100,000 and 150,000 fencers in the United States. There are approximately 131,000,000 people in the United States, which means that 1/10 of 1%, or 1 person in 1,000 knows anything about fencing. According to the latest A.F.L.A. records, 1 person in 109,000 is sufficiently interested in organized fencing to join the league.

The fencer is still an American Sports curiosity. We can no longer look upon 131,000,000 Americans as being potential fencers. We should immediately delete our rural population and limit ourselves to 62,800,000 total white urban population. To be on the safe side, we further limit this to the 93 cities have a population of 100,000 or more. Here we find 33,000,000 total white population. We’ll cut this by 50% to eliminate those too young or too old, the halt, the blind and the urban Americans whose only exercise is in reading the sports section of the newspaper. This leaves us with 16,500,000 as a potential market. If half of these would try the sport, we could hold the interest of 10% of them. That would give 825,000 fencers with 1%, or 8,250 becoming members of the A.F.L.A.

It was written by Dernell Every, Olympian, U.S. national champion, and eighth president of the A.F.L.A/U.S.F.A 1945-48.

Violet Barker, a black hairdresser from Harlem, learned to fence from Al Hern from the Harlem YMCA as a part of his WPA settlement house program in the 1940’s.

At the time, the WPA had a citywide championship at seasons end.

The league officials never imagined that a black fencer could win. Violet entered the tournament and won. Her prize was a membership card to the AFLA, thus she became the first black member in the history of our organization.

Some weeks later, she showed up for an AFLA sponsored tournament and was met at the door by an AFLA representative. He proceeded to rip up her membership card and sent her away. Violet went home and was never seen in fencing circles again.

Her coach, Al Hern, threatened a suit against the league. His club on 14^th street was pejoratively nicknamed “The Abyssinian School of Fencing” by certain AFLA members.

Racial lawsuits were increasingly in the news creating bad press for other organizations and the courts were beginning to go against these men’s club’s, forcing them to change their policies.

Hern began the lawsuit but lost his plaintiff. Violet refused to testify.

Then, in 1949, the Columbia University Fencing Team withdrew from the AFLA competitions to avoid discrimination against the team’s two black members at a meet at, again, the Athletic Club.

Excerpts from December 1, 1949, New York Herald Tribune:

Columbian Fencers Quit League over Racial Discrimination

Action Taken After A.F.L.A. Advised That Negroes Be Withdrawn From Meet

Columbian University’s varsity fencing team announced yesterday that it has withdrawn from all competition in meets of the Amateur Fencers League of America in order to avoid discrimination against the team’s two Negro members.

Mr. Velarde, Columbia’s coach, said that his assistant, Mr. De Kof, had been approached by members of the A.F.L.A.'s metropolitan bout committee and advised to avoid an “embarrassing situation” by withdrawing Columbia’s Negro foilsmen from competition last Nov. 20 at the New York athletic club.

Dr. Daniel Bukantz, interviewed for this article, was the chairmen of the Met Division and remembers hearing from Warren Dow that “some indignity might occur if Columbia’s Negroes show up at the meet”.

At least the incidents sparked changes. The AFLA was split on whether to admit other races and religions into the league. After the incident with Violet Barker and the Metropolitan Division of the AFLA, one board member said, “I think we’re all in agreement that if we start letting Negroes in now, the League will be finished."

Fortunately, not everyone agreed. The president of the League (Miguel Angel deCapriles) eloquently stated, “Gentlemen, it is time we recognize that fencing has changed from the aristocratic sport that it was to the democratic sport that it is.”

This article is a look back at our organization’s past, and not as an assault on any particular fencers or leaders. The leaders represented the views of the majority of the constituents of the time who were not bold enough to reveal their opinions. Our time faces similar injustices and prejudices, but they may be less obvious to us right now. Let us keep striving.

Micahnik finally to be in Hall of Fame

From an article at The Daily Pennsylvanian

By Brandon Moyse
Issue date: 7/19/07 Section: Sports

With 52 years of fencing under his belt, Penn coach Dave Micahnik is more than just a fixture in the sport - he is an all-time great.

And he is finally being recognized for this as the United States Fencing Association recently elected him for induction into the Hall of Fame.

Better late than never, some may say. Count HOF committee chairman Andy Shaw among that group.

"He could have been in sooner," Shaw said. "There's no question he should be in the Hall. Recognizing greatness and being great are two different things."

Micahnik nailed down the latter as a three-time Olympian, a national top-10 fencer, and as a successful college coach - 32 winning seasons and a Coach of the Year award in 1997.

"A lot of people were surprised that I wasn't inducted a long time ago," Micahnik said. He added, though, that it was an honor that never really crossed his mind when he took up fencing a half-century ago.

But Micahnik never got impatient. The hallmarks of his career have been his measured approach and quiet intensity.

Shaw recalls an incident with Micahnik was while Shaw refereeing the Ivy title match between Penn and Columbia in the early 1980s. While the Columbia coach was "going ballistic" to the point of causing three referees to withdraw, Micahnik paced the sideline calmly.

"He knew throwing a fit would do no good," Shaw said. "Dave was measured, intelligent … always knew the story and never lost himself in it."

Despite this somewhat stoic demeanor, Micahnik could not help but get emotional when he found out that he was elected to the Hall of Fame.

It was special for him because he felt that "it's a career vote: not just as a competitor, not just as a coach or an administrator or a volunteer, it's the whole thing. It's validation, it's a good feeling to be recognized and be appreciated."

The actual induction will take place a year from now, at the 2008 Summer Nationals in San Jose, Calif. One of his former assistants, Cathy McClellan, will also be inducted with him.

How has Micahnik spent the last few days celebrating his latest achievement? He's not sitting back relaxing, that's for sure. The Hall of Famer has been busy helping to install a new floor in the fencing room at Penn. Dedication never rests, even after 52 years.

During their coverage of the 2004 Athens Olympic Games NBC Sports Called Shreveport, Louisiana from their headquarters in Rockafeller Plaza in New York City, to interview Andy Shaw about the history of siblings qualifying for the Olympics for fencing:

He told them about Erinn and Keeth Smart

 

 

Along with the Nadi brothers, The Mangiarotti brothers, the Murray Brothers, the Marx Brothers, and the de Capriles brothers, just to name a few.

Joseph L. Levis, Olympic fencer loved to dance, 99

By Gloria Negri, Globe Staff - June 11, 2005

Whether he was fencing in the Olympics as a young man or dancing the tango in competitions in his old age, Joseph L. Levis cut a dashing figure. Six feet tall, the onetime Olympian and fencing coach at MIT never lost his fit figure and competitive spirit.

He was so quick, said his son Robert L. of Miami, that "he could catch a fork that fell from the table before it reached the floor. He could grab flies in midair."

Mr. Levis, who represented the United States in three Olympic Games and became a ballroom dancing champion in his 80s and 90s, died in his Brighton home on May 20. He was 99.

While Mr. Levis won many national fencing championships, his biggest accomplishment, his son said, was winning the silver medal at the 1932 Olympics in men's foil fencing.

Andy Shaw, historian for the US Fencing Association and chairman of the association's Hall of Fame, said that Mr. Levis's win record is still the highest record -- in men's or women's foil -- in Olympic history for a US fencer. He said Mr. Levis was inducted into the association's Hall of Fame in its first year, 1963.

The son of Italian immigrants, Mr. Levis was born and grew up in the North End, where he worked part time in a butcher shop to help his family. He graduated from Boston English High School in 1922 and from MIT in 1926 with a degree in civil engineering.

Mr. Levis learned the basics of fencing from his father. When he arrived at MIT, he was chosen captain of the fencing team and won three intercollegiate championships. He was adept in the use of saber and epee in fencing, his son said, but favored the foil.

After graduating, Mr. Levis joined Freeport Marble and Tile Co. of Dorchester, founded by his father in the mid?1920s. He retired in 1985 as its principal owner and CEO.

Between 1927 and 1936, according to Shaw, Mr. Levis won eight national foil titles and one three-weapon title of the Amateur Fencers League of America, now the US Fencing Association.

He first represented the United States in the Olympics in 1928 in Amsterdam. He won the silver medal in Los Angeles in 1932 and competed in Berlin in 1936.

Shaw said Mr. Levis was the favorite going into the 1936 Olympics, but that he "was cheated out of the chance" to win the gold because he refused to throw a bout. "Joe was asked to give a bout away to a European man who needed to win it," Shaw said. "Joe could have afforded to give the bout away, but he was too honorable a man to do it. Instead, he performed his best and won it. The man who lost told his European friends. They got the judges involved, and they voted against Joe."

In the 1930s, Mr. Levis went to Havana to compete in an exhibit match against gold-medal Olympian Ramon Fonst. In Cuba, he met Yvonne Rodriguez. They married in 1939 in New York, where Mr. Levis was living at the time.

In 1937, Mr. Levis retired from competition. Two years later, he took a job as fencing coach at MIT. "Those were Depression years, and construction was down," his son said, "and he needed another paying job to supplement income from the tile company." He stayed on as MIT coach for 10 years.

Mr. Levis so missed the competition that, in 1949, he applied for reinstatement of his amateur status.

"It wasn't granted until 1954," his son said. "That same year, on his first attempt at competing again after a 17?year retirement, he came back and won his eighth and last national foil championship."

For many years, Mr. Levis held another record. "If you take all Joe's titles and put them against anyone whoever fenced since the beginning of national championships in 1888," Shaw said, "Joe tied for first place for most foil titles in American history with one man, Michael Marx of Oregon. Marx tied the record in 1993."

After Mr. Levis gave up fencing, he began competing in golf and ballroom dancing.

About 20 years ago, Mr. Levis and his wife started lessons at the Dan Radler and Suzanne Hamby Ballroom Dance Studios in Watertown and Southborough.

"The interesting thing about Joe," Hamby said, "was that he never wanted to dance in his age division but always wanted to compete with the younger dancers, and he would often win over them.... I think his best dance was the tango."

Hamby said she believed Mr. Levis was a good dancer "because he had such a strong spirit. Yvonne would pull back Joe's shoulders and tell him, 'I don't want you to look like an old man.' He never did, but always 20 years younger than he was." Mr. Levis only stopped dancing a year ago, after his wife's death.

In addition to his son, Mr. Levis leaves another son, Christopher J. of West Roxbury; and two grandchildren. Services have been held. Burial was in Mount Calvary Cemetery in Hyde Park.

2005 The New York Times Company

From an article at CNN.com
Web posted on: Wednesday, July 29, 1998 5:16:41 PM|
Correspondent Dennis Michael

HOLLYWOOD (CNN) -- As the success of "The Mask of Zorro" attests, movie audiences are fascinated by the art of swordplay, and they have been for some time. "Zorro" is merely the latest evidence of our continuing intrigue with the ancient art of face-to-face combat.

Douglas Fairbanks brought fencing's flash to life on the big screen in 1920; Tyrone Power carried the rapier forward in 1940; and Richard Anderson and Stewart Granger's climactic duel in the 1952 action film "Scaramouche" is hard to beat in terms of audience involvement.

Now Antonio Banderas and Catherine Zeta-Jones of "Zorro" are taking the ancient spectacle into the dawn of the new millennium. And the audience is drawn into their duel.

Sword-fighting and the character

"When you learn to swordfight, you learn how to play the character, because the character is about that," says Banderas.

Andy Shaw, a historian with the U.S. Fencing Association, agrees.

"Fencing is fully a bodily and emotional and psychological expression," Shaw says. "That movement you see is that man giving it off. It's quite exciting for someone to reveal himself or herself, regardless of how one expresses it."

Grace, poise, confidence

Students at the Westside Fencing Center in Los Angeles include many learning the sword as a sport. Others are Hollywood actors seeking to put fencing on their resumés. Classic theater training once required fencing classes.

"It gives you grace, it gives you poise, it gives you confidence," says Francesca Caro, an actress learning the art of sword-fighting. "You move around, you observe the other person. It's very philosophy-based. Everything you need to know is right in front of you."

Sword-fighting can also be seen on television these days. Ralf Moeller, star of the syndicated "Conan" series, is in training to begin work on a second season of adventures. For him, that means spending hours with Kiyoshi Yamazaki, a master of Eido, the art of Japanese swordsmanship.

The art of fencing may be ancient, but there is still no more exciting place to be than at swords' points.