Norman Washington Harllee

Norman Washington Harllee (c. 1847 - 1927) was an educator and advocate for African American education in the United States. He was born on the Harllee Plantation near Lumberton in Robeson County, North Carolina where he was enslaved.[1] He taught himself to read and write using Webster's spelling book.[1] He attended Biddle University.[2] In the 1890s, he served as the first superintendent of the Texas State Fair's Colored Department.

He served as principal of Dallas Colored High School. He advocated for an industrial school and state university for African Americans in Dallas.[3]

He wrote several textbooks including Harllee's Tree of History, "a new and graphic method of teaching history", and Diagram System of Geography.[4]

Daniel Wallace Culp included him and his photograph in his 1902 book Twentieth Century Negro Literature Or, A Cyclopedia of Thought on the Vital Topics Relating to the American Negro.[5][3]

An elementary school was named for him,[6] the first school in Dallas to be named after an African American. An early learning center is named for him.[7]

References

  1. ^ a b "TSHA | Harllee, Norman Washington". www.tshaonline.org.
  2. ^ News, Texas Metro (August 26, 2021). "I WAS JUST THINKING: Harllee-Phelps family: Dallas Black dynasty of achievement - Part I". {{cite web}}: |last= has generic name (help)
  3. ^ a b Culp, Daniel Wallace (1902). Twentieth Century Negro Literature: Or, A Cyclopedia of Thought on the Vital Topics Relating to the American Negro. ISBN 9780598621122.
  4. ^ "Harllee". afrotexan.com.
  5. ^ "Prof. N. W. Harllee [recto]". NYPL Digital Collections.
  6. ^ Nwosu, Jeneta. "The History Of Race In Dallas: Black Movements, Part Two".
  7. ^ Wilonsky, Robert. "Following USA Today Report, EPA to Test Air Quality Around DISD's Harllee Elementary". Dallas Observer.
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