[3] Initially, members of the AFLA were only white men, and it excluded women, Jews, Blacks, and others from membership.
[4][5][6][7] During the AFLA's first year, divisional organizations formed in New England and Nebraska, while the New York fencers remained in the "non-divisional group".
[9] The AFLA remained a small organization for the first fifty years of its existence, with approximately 1,250 members in 1940.
Despite its small size, the AFLA fielded teams to represent the United States in fencing events at all of the Summer Olympic Games from 1904 onward.
[1] In 1949, the AFLA made American Fencing (at that time a bi-monthly magazine) the official publication of the league.
In order to remain competitive internationally, AFLA fencers had to adapt to the emerging style.
[1] [1] Active (25) Inactive (10) [1] Active (42) Inactive (10) [2] Active (49) Inactive (11) [11] Presidents[2][11] (in order of service, through 1964) Secretaries[2][11] (in order of service, through 1964) Treasurers[11] (in order of service, through 1970) (office combined with secretary prior to 1936) Initially, members of the Association (then called the Amateur Fencers League of America)[12] were only white men, and it excluded women, Jews, Blacks, and others from membership.
[5][6][7] In 1938, Helene Mayer won the Fencing Association's San Francisco Division men's title; however, two days later she was stripped of the title, as the Association adopted a rule banning competition between women and men, stating that since fencing involved physical contact, "a chivalrous man found it difficult to do his worst when he faced a woman."