Norman Washington Harllee | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Born | July 15, 1852 |
| Died | May 17, 1927 (aged 74) Dallas, Texas, US |
| Education | Biddle University, A.B. University of Chicago, A.M. |
| Occupation | Educator |
Norman Washington Harllee (July 15, 1852 – May 17, 1927) was an African American educator. He was associated with the public schools in Dallas, Texas for more than 40 years.
Early life and education
[edit]Harllee was born between 1847 and 1853 on the Harllee Plantation near Lumberton in Robeson County, North Carolina where he was enslaved.[1][2][a] His parents were Luisa and Evan Harllee, both enslaved.[1] He taught himself to read and write using Webster's Blue Back Speller.[3] He was also self-taught in shorthand.[4] He taught school in Richmond County, North Carolina in 1867.[1] He attended Biddle University, graduating with honors in 1879 with an A.B.[1][2][3] Later, he earned an A.M. degree from the University of Chicago.[2]
Career
[edit]Harllee taught school in Richmond County, North Carolina after graduating from college.[1] He was elected the register of deeds for Richmond County, North Carolina in 1881.[3] He was a speaker at the Colored Fair in Raleigh, North Carolina in 1881.[1] He was appointed to the position of postal clerk from 1882 to 1885, first serving on the Carolina Central Railroad in 1882, later transferring to Charlotte, Columbia, and August Railroad.[3]
In 1882, he became the vice president of the North Carolina Teachers’ Education Association.[1] That summer, he oversaw a Black teacher's institute in Laurinburg, North Carolina.[1] He was in charge of the Colored Public School in Laurinburg, starting in 1883.[1] He served on the executive committee of the North Carolina Industrial Association, advocating for the provision of industrial education to Black students.[1]
He moved to Dallas, Texas in 1885.[2] He was the principal of Grammar School No. 2 in Dallas, also teaching there at Ninth Street Colored Street.[1][3] He was principal of Dallas Colored High School from 1901 to 1912.[1][3]
During the summers, Harllee organized and taught normal institutes for teachers; he served in this role for nearly thirty years starting in 1895, training Black teachers in pedagogy.[1] He helped organize and was president of the Texas Colored Teacher's State Association from 1897 to 1898.[1][5][6] In this capacity, he advocated for a Colored Branch University in Austin, authorized by the Constitution of Texas in 1876 but not yet established.[3] The Black educators efforts led to state funding of Prairie View State Normal and Industrial College in 1915.[1] In 1913, Harllee was the founding president of the Colored Normal and Industrial Institute in Dallas; however, the institute closed after three years for financial reasons.[1] In a letter the Dallas Express in 1920, G. W. Jackson wrote, "Prof. N. W. Harllee has been a bold, courageous, and aggressive leader whose diplomatic movements for his people have won friends for them where opposite races where not kindly disposed."[4]
Harllee wrote the "Colored Society" column for The Dallas Morning News about Black community affairs from the 1890s to the 1900s.[1][2][3] In 1913, Harllee established the Union City News in the all-Black town, Union City, Texas.[1] From 1919 to 1923, he was a reporter and columnist for the Black-owned Dallas Express, covering churches, fraternal organizations, and education.[1][2] He wrote the column "N. W. Harllee's Two-Minute Talk for Boys and Girls".[1]
Harllee wrote several textbooks, including Harllee's Tree of History, Simplified Long Division, and c.[3]
Personal life
[edit]On January 7, 1891, Harllee married Florence Belle Coleman of Dallas.[1][3] They had three children: Chauncey Depew Harllee, Lucretia Harllee, and Norman W. Harllee Jr.[3]
While in North Carolina, Harllee was chairman of the Richmond County Republican Party in the early 1880s; he was nominated chair of the State Republican Convention but stepped aside to a white man to reduce racial conflicts within the party.[1] He coordinated a fundraising campaign for Biddle University. in 1884.[1]
After moving to Texas, Harllee was a founder and president of the Dallas Colored Literary Society.[1] In 1887, he was the founder of the Colored Library Association in Dallas.[7] In the 1880s, he was the first superintendent of the Colored Department of the Texas State Fair, serving in that position for at least fourteen years.[2][4] He was chairman of the board of the YMCA of Dallas where he conducted a night school for all ages and genders, along with several other teachers.[3] He belonged to the Bethel African Methodist Episcopal Church.[1]
Harllee died on May 17, 1927, from bronchial pneumonia.[1] He was buried in Dallas in the Woodland Cemetery.[1]
Honors
[edit]Daniel Wallace Culp included Harllee and his photograph in the 1902 book Twentieth Century Negro Literature or, a Cyclopedia of Thought on the Vital Topics Relating to the American Negro.[3]
The Ninth Ward School in Dallas was renamed N. W. Harllee Elementary School in his honor in January 1927.[1][2] After the elementary school closed in 2012, it was repurposed as the N. W. Harllee Early Childhood Center in 2013.[2]
He was inducted into the African American Educators Hall of Fame and received the Pioneer/Trailblazer Award from the Dallas African American Archives and History Program in 2007.[1]
Notes
[edit]- ^ Daniel Wallace Culp states Harllee's birthdate was July 15, 1852.
References
[edit]- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z aa ab ac Dulaney, W. Marvin (November 18, 2020). "Norman Washington Harllee: Pioneer African American Educator and Civic Leader". Texas State Historical Association. Retrieved 2025-07-08.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i Adams-Wade, Norma (August 26, 2021). "I Was Just Thinking: Harllee-Phelps family: Dallas Black dynasty of achievement - Part I".
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Culp, Daniel Wallace (1902). Twentieth Century Negro Literature: or, a Cyclopedia of Thought on the Vital Topics Relating to the American Negro. Toronto: J. L. Nichols & Company. p. 298 – via Google Books.
- ^ a b c "Life and Works of Public Spirited Men pt. 1". The Dallas Express. 1920-05-15. pp. 12, pt.2. Retrieved 2025-07-08 – via Newspapers.com.
- ^ "Colored School of Methods". The Houston Post. 1899-06-15. p. 6. Retrieved 2025-07-08 – via Newspapers.com.
- ^ "The Colored Teachers". The Houston Post. 1899-07-01. p. 6. Retrieved 2025-07-08 – via Newspapers.com.
- ^ Dulaney, W. Marvin (November 18, 2020). "Norman Washington Harllee: Pioneer African American Educator and Civic Leader". Texas State Historical Association. Retrieved 2025-07-08.