TYLER, Texas — In 1933, the city of Tyler was changed for good with a bold move from a fearless trailblazer, creating a legacy during a difficult and transitional period in the country.
During a depression and in the middle of the Jim Crow era, a brave soul named Henry Miller Morgan opened the nation's first African American barber college on Erwin Street.
A former Tyler Barber College graduate from Tampa, Fla. stated, "He inspired me that I could go on and make a career out of barbering, send my kids to college, buy a home and own a barber shop."
Morgan expanded the barber college to several cities across the country, which gave African American men and women a chance at entrepreneurship.
Another graduate of the college explained, "Since I wasn't able to go to a regular college, I needed something to be independent for myself."
Due to financial hardships, the Tyler Barber College was forced to close in the 1970's, but by then the College had graduated countless barbers who have continued a powerful culture of black-owned businesses in the United States.
