Lucy Diggs Slowe Hall, a Howard University dormitory, opened in 1942 as U.S. government housing for African American women who came to Washington, D.C., to take new war-related jobs or replace men who left to join the military during World War II. These women and their white counterparts were known as government girls. Because housing was scarce, the few government-built residences were in great demand, and, following local custom, they were segregated. Slowe Hall honors Lucy Diggs Slowe, a celebrated Howard University women's dean, tennis champion, and co-founder of Alpha Kappa Alpha, the first national sorority for African Americans. In addition to housing young women, the hall offered meeting spaces that brought notable visitors to the neighborhood. Constance Allen, who grew up nearby, recalled greeting Eleanor Roosevelt there in 1943 when the first lady met with Mary McLeod Bethune, a member of President Franklin D. Roosevelt's Black Cabinet.