Locating Slavery's Legacies @ Sewanee: The University of the South

Advocate of the Civil Rights Movement

Tapia, Brenda L. Howard

Brenda Tapia was born to two Davidson College employees and later became a long-time Chaplain, mentor, community leader, and the founding director of the Love of Learning Program.

Reverend Brenda L. Howard Tapia, a life-long leader, was born on August 27, 1949, in Lawrence Hospital in Mooresville, North Carolina to Dovie Houston and James William Howard, both former employees of Davidson College. She had two sisters. Growing up in Jim Crow Davidson, NC, she attended Ada Jenkins Elementary and Torrence Lytle High School, until she integrated into North Mecklenburg High School in the fall of 1965 for the last two years of high school. Upon her graduation in 1967, she went to Howard University in Washington, D.C., for her B.A. in Psychology and later Johnson C. Smith Seminary in Atlanta, GA for her Masters of Divinity. She married Hernan Tapia in May 1974 in Arlington, VA for a brief period of time. She never remarried or had any children.

Beginning in childhood, Brenda cultivated the principles of religion and education that would become integral to her success and leadership. Brenda began working for Davidson College in 1985. She served over her tenure as assistant chaplain, counselor and founding director of the Love of Learning Program. Love of Learning aimed to develop a college-readiness pipeline for local marginalized high-school students. Her other on-campus work pushed Davidson to become a more diverse and welcoming place for students, faculty, staff, and community residents such as serving as the faculty mentor for the Black Student Coalition (BSC) and organizing annual MLK celebrations for the Davidson community.

On February 4, 2020, Brenda Tapia passed away.

August 27, 1949

February 4, 2020

1945-1976: Era of Civil Rights Movement and resistance to Civil Rights Movement

1976-2000: The Conservative Ascendancy and Retrenchment from Civil Rights Movement

2000-Present: Memorialization in the Era of Universities Studying Slavery and the Black Lives Matter Movement

Davidson College; Davidson, North Carolina

Headstone for Brenda L. Howard Tapia

Davidson College; Davidson, North Carolina

“Brenda Lovell Howard” in North Carolina, U.S., Birth Indexes, 1800-2000 (database online). Lehi, UT: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2005.

“Brenda Lavell Howard” in Virginia, U.S., Marriage Records, 1936-2014 (database online). Lehi, UT: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2015.

Brenda Howard Tapia, interview by Clarence Fox, January 5, 2017, OHI-0233, RG 19, Davidson College Archives, Special Collections and Community, Davidson, NC.

Brenda Howard Tapia, interview by Jonathan Chisholm, October 6, 2010, OHI-0314, RG19-07, Davidson College Archives, Special Collections and Community, Davidson, NC.

Stockdale, Jerry S. “The Black Experience of Davidson: Brenda Tapia.” Davidson Journal (Fall 1990): 18-21.

Tapia, Brenda, D-file. Davidson College Archives & Special Collections, Davidson, NC.

White, Herbert. "Love of Learning Advocate the Rev. Brenda Tapia Dies at Age 70." The Charlotte Post. February 11, 2020.

Wilson, Trish. “Education That Heals Souls and Builds Self-Esteem.” The News & Observer, Newsclipping, October 6, 1991. Tapia, Brenda H. Biographical file. Davidson College Archives & Special Collections, Davidson, NC.