Falls Church resident Edwin B. Henderson, II received the first annual Anthony Bowen Legacy Award from the Washington Metropolitan YMCA on Thursday, Oct. 27 at The Hamilton. He was given the award for his preservation of African-American, civil rights and sports history in the Washington metropolitan area.

The award that Henderson received is named after Rev. Anthony Bowen, who was a civic leader among the African-American community in Washington, D.C. and the first African-American employee of the United States Patent Office.

Henderson, the founder and executive director of the Tinner Hill Heritage Foundation, is the grandson of E.B. Henderson, who is known as a pioneer of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People in Northern Virginia and the father of black basketball, and Mary Ellen Henderson, the namesake of Mary Ellen Henderson Middle School.