By Norma Adams-Wade
Texas Metro News Correspondent
February – the month of Black History and Valentine’s Day love tributes – was also the perfect time for the African American Education Archives and History Program (AAEAHP) to celebrate their Founders’ Day.
That’s exactly what the group of veteran Dallas-area educators and their supporters did on Feb. 13 at the African American Museum at Fair Park.
The group of mainly elder Dallas-area teachers, principals and other education staffers celebrated 20 years of activities since Dr. Alfred Roberts facilitated founding the organization two decades ago in 2002. The Founders’ Day program was dedicated to Dr. Harry Jr., African American Museum founder who AAEAHP says has been a staunch AAEAHP supporter and founding member.
The group’s mission is to make the public aware of the importance of the African-American education experience in Dallas County and to recognize outstanding individuals who historically and currently have supported educating Dallas County Black students. AAEAHP inducts these individuals into its Hall of Fame, collects artifacts and an oral history about them, and exhibits their histories at the African American Museum. The Bobbie L. Lang HOF, named for the event’s first chairperson, also presents scholarship to selected, aspiring students.
Various founding members were in the audience for the Feb.13 Founders’ Day program. Second VP Dr. Andrea Hilburn moderated the program where Dr. W. Marvin Dulaney shared history about notable African-American educators and African-American leaders in Dallas County.
Dr. Dulaney is a noted local historian and national president of the Association for the Study of African American Life and History. Dr. Carter G. Woodson founded the stellar organization in 1915, then 11 years later founded Black History Week that became Black History Month.
Using a PowerPoint screen behind him, Dr. Dulaney also reviewed local Black educators’ and leaders’ struggles to gain equal pay and benefits for educators and to gain Black citizens voting rights. These crusaders include Minnie Flanagan, Thelma Page Richardson, N. W. Harllee, and a roll call of others.
For instance, the brilliant and high-achieving Harllee was born into slavery in North Carolina in the 1840s. After he moved from North Carolina to Dallas in the late 1880s, Whites and Blacks alike recognized his genius, despite Jim Crow restrictions of the time. He held many prominent roles in education and civic affairs.
“N. W. Harllee (in 1927) was the first living person and first Black person in Dallas who had a school named for him,” Dr. Dulaney told the audience. “It is still on 8th Street in Oak Cliff.”
Dr. Dulaney also pointed out that many people today do not realize that before Thurgood Marshall became a Supreme Justice, the then-NAACP attorney spent time in Dallas working on local civil rights and voting rights cases with his comrade in the struggle, businessman and civic leaders A. Maceo Smith.
AAEAHP will present its annual Bobbie L. Lang Hall of Fame ceremony at noon April 8, 2023 at Hilton Garden Inn, 800 N. Main St. in the Duncanville, southern suburb. COVID-19 safety protocol will be practiced. Retired judge Joan Tarpley Winn will receive the Trailblazer Award. Nine educators will be inducted in the Bobbie L. Lang Hall of Fame: Alene Baker, Dr. Lew Blackburn, S. Dean Hill, Earl Jones, Thelma Kelly, William Mitchell, Billie Roberts, Dr. Juanita Simmons, and Eugene Young.
Tickets are $75. To order and learn more, visit www.aaeahp.org or call 214-478-7228 or 972-298-6980.
