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Narvie Jordan Harris supervised all Black schools in DeKalb County beginning in 1944 as Jeanes Supervisor for the county. She continued in this role until desegregation in 1968. The Jeanes Supervisor program was initially funded by a one-million-dollar donation of Philadelphia Quaker Anna Jeanes in 1907. Jeanes Supervisors were Black educators hired to oversee Black schools across the United States.
Narvie Jordan was born in 1917 in Wrightsville, Georgia to James Jordan and Anna Hobbs Jordan. James Jordan owned a pressing club and tailor shop in Wrightsville, later operating the same type of business on Auburn Avenue when the family moved to Atlanta.
In 1934, Narvie Jordan graduated from Booker T. Washington High School in Atlanta and went on to attend Clark College. Following her graduation from Clark, Harris taught in Henry County and Calhoun County. In addition to teaching, her responsibilities included preparing the children’s lunches and teaching night school.
Narvie Jordan continued her studies at Grambling College in Louisiana, where she received a scholarship to study elementary education. Back in Atlanta, she was selected to attend a new program at Atlanta University, where she received a master’s degree in Administration and Supervision in 1944. In 1945, she married Joseph Harris.
Narvie Harris’ Jeanes Supervisor office was in the Cox Funeral Home on Marshall Street in Decatur. She was charged with supervising seventeen schools, all in run-down buildings. She describes her attitude going into the job, “Although I was considered quite young for such a responsible position, I possessed an air of authority born in the conviction that important work was too long left undone, and there was no time to waste.”
Harris describes traveling the backroads of the county to visit the seventeen schools. Twelve of the schools were in churches and two were in lodge halls. The school’s chairs, desks, and facilities needed repair or replacement and the books were old and used, sometimes barely usable.
She and her committee planned to consolidate to six schools: Hamilton, Robert Shaw, Lynwood Park, Bruce Street, County Line and Victoria Simmons. Lynwood Park School was already located on Osborne Road in the historically Black community of Lynwood Park in what is now the city of Brookhaven. Doraville, Mt. Zion and Mt. Moriah Schools, were all Black schools which consolidated with Lynwood Park School. Mt. Zion was on Chamblee Dunwoody Road, east of what is now Peachtree Boulevard. Mt. Moriah was in the area where North Druid Hills Road and Briarcliff Road meet.
Following the 1954 Brown v. Board of Education ruling to desegregate schools, improvements were made to Black schools in Georgia and in some cases, new schools were built. Lynwood Park School was one of these schools, “equalization schools,” claiming improvements for Black students, while maintaining segregation. Read more about Georgia’s equalization schools on this Georgia Historical Society page.
Lynwood Park applied for a Georgia Historical Marker a few years ago, but amongst a large number of competitors did not receive approval. The Lynwood Park Foundation plans to reapply for the marker. Foundation representative Kathy Wells says, “We are working with the city of Brookhaven to assist in preserving the history of Lynwood Park, once the oldest Black community in DeKalb.” The foundation and the city are working together to design and place their own historical marker in the meantime.
This photograph appears in Narvie Harris’ book. It was taken at the groundbreaking for additions to Lynwood Park School in 1954. Left to right are Harvey Colman-Principal, Mrs. McDaniel-PTA President, Narvie Jordan Harris-Jeanes Supervisor, and Jim Cherry-Superintendent of DeKalb County Schools.
Narvie Harris continued to work to improve the education of all Black DeKalb County students through better programs, facilities and supplies. She is credited with organizing a health and nutrition program, PTA Council, music festival and science fair during her tenure.
When desegregation took place in DeKalb County Schools in 1968, Harris assumed the role of Instructional Coordinator for Elementary Schools. She remained in this role until 1983 when she retired. In 1985 the DeKalb County School Board named her honorary associate superintendent of DeKalb Schools.
Many photographs and remembrances are included in the book she cowrote with Dee Taylor, African American Education in DeKalb County, From the Collection of Narvie J. Harris. She begins the book by describing the importance of education in her own childhood home, “Learning was planted like a seed in us as children in our home. It germinated. Learning bloomed from the immense joy of it, which was planted deeply inside me.” It is obvious from her writing that she cared deeply about education and her students.
In 1999, a DeKalb County School was named in her honor-Narvie J. Harris Traditional Theme School. Mrs. Harris died on October 30, 2009, leaving behind a legacy of her constant devotion to improving the education of Black students in DeKalb County.