W. Miller Barbour

W. Miller Barbour was born on September 20, 1908, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.  He and his mother lived in Plymouth Township, Montgomery County, PA for a while according to the 1920 Census.

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Later, his mother, Minnie and stepfather, Charles Archer settled in Middletown, PA where they resided at 254 Market Street. 

 

Mr. Barbour went to Middletown schools and was one of the first Negro students to graduate from Middletown High School.  He excelled in academics and Middletown held a community celebration upon his graduation.

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He later attended Elizabethtown College and was one of the first Negros to graduate in the early 1930s, where he played football and was on the debate team.  It was here where he became interested in community service and non-violent social change. 

 

He went on to earn his master’s degree in Social Work from the University of Pennsylvania where he had worked at the Wharton Center and focused his internship on change for Negro youth by meeting them in their lives - whether it was on a street corner, where they worked, or in a hospital room after they were shot (“Operation Street Corner” and “Operation Youth City”).  He understood that poverty was the dividing line for these youth and wanted to raise them up from juvenile delinquency, gang violence, and drugs.  

 

He worked as a social worker throughout the 1940s and for the Department of Public Assistance.

After graduation he was employed by the Urban League and moved to Denver, Colorado  and later to California to work on issues of fair housing and employment. 

 

By 1951, he was working on the National level of the Urban League as Executive Secretary and later as Director of the Western Field Office in Los Angeles.  He worked to engage local changes for better housing, fair employment, educational opportunities, medical needs and all other human rights that were needed.

 

Unfortunately, Mr. Barbour died on March 20, 1957, from heart complications in Los Angeles.  He was only 48 years old.  He had begun the fight for Civil Rights that later leaders like Martin Luther King, Jr., Thurgood Marshall, John Lewis, Medgar Evers, Rosa Parks, and Ella Baker continued.  

 

Photo Credit: Denver Newspapers / Newspapers.com