Brownwood News –
February is Black History Month. Brownwoodnews.com will run a series of articles this month about some of the early Black leaders in Brown County. This is the second in the series.
Most folks in Brown County are familiar with the Hardin School building on Hall Street, adjacent to Cecil Holman Park and the Bennie Houston Community Center, but are not so familiar with the man for whom the school was named.
Rufus Forley Hardin was born in slavery in August, 1859, in Kaufman County, southeast of Dallas. His formal education began at the age of 13 in Kaufman county, but at the age of 17 he moved north to Kansas and worked cattle. He attended school during his eight months in Kansas, then moved back to Texas and continued his education in Van Zandt county, also southeast of Dallas.