Her paternal grandfather, John Randolph Bowles was a Baptist minister and served as the chaplain of the 55th Massachusetts Infantry Regiment during the civil war.

[1] After attending public schools in Albany, Bowles went on to continue her education at Bliss Business College in Columbus while taking summer classes at Ohio State University.

[5][3] In 1905, while she was teaching in Virginia, Bowles was approached by Addie Waites Hunton, whose husband William was secretary of the Colored Young Men's Christian Association (YMCA) of Harlem.

During World War I, the YWCA provided funds to further expand services in the black communities and open industrial work centers, as well as recreational facilities.

[2] Bowles recruitment was so successful that she increased the black staff from one to over sixty and was awarded $4,000 with an accommodation for her work from former president Theodore Roosevelt from his Nobel Prize funds.

[10][11] In 1943, at the onset of World War II, Bowles was named executive director of Civilian Defense for the Harlem and Riverside areas of New York City.