EXCLUSIVE: United States’ First African American Barber College Chain's Building Faces Demolition in Tyler, Texas

​​Smith County, Texas Plans New County Courthouse at Site of Historic Tyler Barber College Chain, Now Defunct

The late Henry Miller Morgan, founer of Tyler Barber College

Editorial Note: Regina L. Burns is researching the Tyler Barber College Chain as part of her dissertation at the University of North Texas, Denton, Texas, where she is a Ph.D. student in the History Department. Tyler Barber College Chain is the nation’s first African American barber school, founded by the late Henry Miller Morgan (also known as H. M. Morgan) during Jim Crow segregation, in 1933 in Tyler, Texas. 
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Undoubtedly, Morgan’s decision to launch his own school was heavily influenced by Texas’ 1929 barber licensing law, which required barbers to obtain the necessary training to get a license, but segregation blocked African Americans from such training. When Morgan launched Tyler Barber College, not only was it a novel enterprise, but it proved his business and educational acumen and dedication to advancing the uplift of the Black community. 

Burns, an award-winning multimedia journalist who has worked for The Associated Press in Mississippi and Texas, as well as media outlets in Memphis, Tennessee, Fayetteville, North Carolina, and Dallas, Texas, first discovered Tyler Barber College during a freelance gig with Texas Highways magazine in the summer of 2020. Burns credits former TH editor, Matt Joyce, with pointing her in Edmund Morrow’s (Jamie Foxx's former barber)  direction. Morrow and his late father, Robert E. Morrow, both graduated from Tyler Barber College’s Dallas location.

At the behest of the late Dr. Charlie Marler, Burns’ former Abilene Christian University media law professor, and longtime mentor, she sought guidance from several historians and professors, and subsequently, enrolled in graduate history courses in fall 2021 at the University of Texxas at Arlington (UTA). Two scholarships from UTA professor emeritus, Dr. W. Marvin Dulaney, made those courses possible. Dulaney, now the national president of the Association for the Study of African American Life and History (ASALH), championed her decision to study at the doctoral degree level at the University of North Texas (UNT).

​On behalf of the UNT Oral History Collection, led by Dr. Todd Moye, Burns has conducted several unpublished oral history interviews of graduates/leaders connected to Morgan and the barber college. These interviews will be included in the dissertation.

Due to years of hard work by a group of dedicated volunteers at the Texas Association of Tonsorial Artists, (TAOTA) the professional barbers' organization Morgan founded in the 1950s,  and the Smith County Historical Society, the Texas Historical Commission honored Morgan’s legacy with a state historical marker in 2004. The TAOTA held a jubilant marker dedication ceremony in 2005 (document provided by James Smith, former TAOTA executive president) in Tyler in front of the building that formerly housed the school, which closed in the 1970s.

Also in 2005, the 79th Texas Legislature honored Morgan’s historical marker in both the Senate and the House. These rare and hard-won public accolades, together with the pioneering work of the school's administrators, instructors, and graduates, are undeniable evidence of Morgan’s power and brilliance, and the college’s educational, economic, and cultural impacts to Texas and the nation.​
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The news article is below.

The historic building that formerlty housed Tyler Barber College, 212 E. Erwin St. in Tyler, Texas, will be demollished to make way for construction of a new Smith County Courthouse. Photo taken on July 24, 2023. Copyright Emily Buziewicz.

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DALLAS--The historic East Texas building where the Tyler Barber College Chain's instructors trained the nation's African American barbers and beauticians in Tyler, Texas, during Jim Crow segregation as the country’s first Black barber school, faces demolition to make way for a new Smith County  (Texas) Courthouse, according to Larry Wade, president of the Smith County Historical Society. The Chain was founded in 1933 by the late Henry Miller Morgan.

​The demolition is required as part of a $179 million bond that voters approved on Nov. 8, 2022. The demolition date is pending. Tyler is located 105 miles east of Dallas.

Via Boston Public Library's Flickr page; photo found by UNT History Department Chair Dr. Jennifer Jensen Wallach

Regret, Plan of Action
“It’s unfortunate that I wasn’t thinking about the (Tyler) Barber College at the time of the election. It wasn’t in my consciousness. I knew the barber college was there and had a (historical) marker,” said Wade, the first African American president of the Smith County Historical Society. During a phone interview on July 17, 2023, Wade also said, “That building was considered ‘Black Wall Street’ and I plan to contact the Texas Historical Commission to notify them of what’s going on with the building. I want to see if anything can be done. I wish the building could be saved.” The building is located at 212 E, Erwin St., in Tyler.

Demolition Date Unknown
Smith County Judge Neal Franklin responded to a July 17, 2023, email inquiry about the date of the demolition, indicating that it may be in 2024, “… but I’m not positive. There are a lot of moving parts. We have several groups interested in the historical significance of the buildings. I am happy to assist you in any way I can.”

​Texas Historical Commission’s 2004 Marker Celebrates Morgan’s Legacy
In 2004, the Texas Historical Commission approved a historical marker commemorating Morgan’s success as a barber, entrepreneur, political activist, and philanthropist. When he died in 1961 in Houston, Jet magazine (discovered by UNT Labor Historian Dr. Chad Pearson) reported he was a millionaire.  The marker is located near the front of the building where Morgan’s school brought students from all over the nation to Tyler.  In 2005, the TAOTA commemorated the maker's installation.

​According to the marker's text, Morgan “established male and female student dormitories, and in 1937 he opened a branch in Houston. In 1945, he opened a location in Jackson, Mississippi, adding a branch in Little Rock, Arkansas the next year. In 1948, his Manhattan location opened, and a Dallas branch opened in 1949. The Tyler  headquarters quickly grew to accommodate the expanding business, and at one time the school reportedly was training a majority of the nation's African American barbers.”

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Historian’s Book
According to “Cutting Along the Color Line: Black Barbers and Barber Shops in America” by Quincy T. Mills, “between 1935 and 1944” the institution “graduated 1,635 barbers.” Mills, an associate professor of history at the University of Maryland, wrote that “women represented two-thirds of the 126 enrolled students” and Morgan’s students included veterans, using their G.I. Bill benefits.

1960 Tyler Barber College  Chain Graduate Still Cutting Hair
In the late 1950s, Johnny Crawford and his family lived in Tampa, Florida. He heard an ad on the radio about Tyler Barber College, and after giving it thought, decided to enroll. He was admitted and moved his family to Tyler in 1959, he said in a 2022 unpublished interview for the UNT Oral History Collection. Crawford completed the nine-month course and in March 1960, went to Houston to take the barber licensing exam, which he passed. Later, he and his family relocated from Tyler to Dallas, where Crawford landed a job with the late Dallas barber Johnny Graham. 

Crawford worked at Graham’s Barber Shop for several years and later established his own Dallas barber shop and barber supply business. He also joined the TAOTA. Crawford served as its executive president and held a variety of other leadership roles. He is credited with creating the Tyler chapter of the TAOTA. Additionally, he was part of the group that worked with the Smith County Historical Society to obtain Morgan’s historical marker.
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Now semi-retired, the 84-year-old Crawford is still cutting hair in Oak Cliff, a Dallas suburb. When he heard about the impending demolition of the barber college's building, Crawford said, “I feel bad. I know the circumstances. It’s really hard to preserve old buildings. Most of the time, cities want to have modern buildings.”

Learn more:
Texas Highways' Profile of Edmund Morrow, Jamie's Foxx's Former Barber
EXCLUSIVE: 53 years after attending Dr. King's funeral at the behest of Ann Arbor, Michigan officials, meet the Black man who was president ... (Online Audio Documentary)
Reporter's Notebook: Covering the Alamo’s Historic Reveal for Texas Highways Magazine
Copyright (2023) Regina L. Burns
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