Thomas H Harris was the dominant figure in Louisiana

Louisiana

Louisiana is a state located in the southern region of the United States of America. Its capital is Baton Rouge and largest city is New Orleans. Louisiana is the only state in the U.S. with political subdivisions termed parishes, which are local governments equivalent to counties...

 public education

Public education

State schools, also known in the United States and Canada as public schools,In much of the Commonwealth, including Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, and the United Kingdom, the terms 'public education', 'public school' and 'independent school' are used for private schools, that is, schools...

 in the first half of the 20th century through his role as the state school superintendent from 1908-1940.

Early years and education

Christened Lee Marcus Harris, he became legally known as Thomas H Harris; as with Harry S Truman, the middle initial stood for nothing. He was born four years after the end of the American Civil War

American Civil War

The American Civil War was a civil war fought in the United States of America. In response to the election of Abraham Lincoln as President of the United States, 11 southern slave states declared their secession from the United States and formed the Confederate States of America ; the other 25...

 in the Arizona community of Claiborne Parish

Claiborne Parish, Louisiana

Claiborne Parish is a parish located in the U.S. state of Louisiana. The parish seat is Homer and as of 2000, the population is 16,851.-History:The parish is named for the first Louisiana governor, William C. C. Claiborne....

 in north Louisiana, a son of a Baptist

Baptist

Baptists comprise a group of Christian denominations and churches that subscribe to a doctrine that baptism should be performed only for professing believers , and that it must be done by immersion...

 minister, the Reverend Austin Harris, and the former Rettie Rebecca Milner. He briefly attended the former Arizona Academy conducted by his father. In 1889, at the age of twenty, Harris enrolled for eight months in the former Lisbon Academy in the Lisbon

Lisbon, Louisiana

Lisbon is a village in Claiborne Parish, Louisiana, United States. The population was 162 at the 2000 census. Lisbon is located east of the parish seat of Homer....

 community in Claiborne Parish. From 1891-1892, he attended the former Homer College in Homer

Homer, Louisiana

Homer is present day parish seat of Claiborne Parish, Louisiana, United States. The town was named after the Greek poet Homer and was laid out around the Courthouse Square in 1850 by Frank Vaughn. The present day brick courthouse, built in the Greek Revival style of architecture, is one of only...

, the parish seat of Claiborne Parish. Thereafter, he taught school in Claiborne and Winn Parish

Winn Parish, Louisiana

Winn Parish is a parish located in the U.S. state of Louisiana. Its seat is Winnfield. In 2000, its population was 16,894.The parish has a total area of , of which, of it is land and of it is water....

, the latter the ancestral home of the Long political dynasty

Huey Long

Huey Pierce Long, Jr. , nicknamed The Kingfish, served as the 40th Governor of Louisiana from 1928–1932 and as a U.S. Senator from 1932 to 1935. A Democrat, he was noted for his radical populist policies. Though a backer of Franklin D...

. Thereafter, in the fall of 1893, Harris enrolled at Northwestern State University

Northwestern State University

Northwestern State University, known as NSU, is a four-year public university primarily situated in Natchitoches, Louisiana, with a nursing campus in Shreveport and general campuses in Leesville/Fort Polk and Alexandria. It is a part of the University of Louisiana System.NSU was founded in 1884 as...

 in Natchitoches

Natchitoches, Louisiana

Natchitoches is a city in and the parish seat of Natchitoches Parish, Louisiana, United States. Established in 1714 by Louis Juchereau de St. Denis as part of French Louisiana, the community was named after the Natchitoches Indian tribe. The City of Natchitoches was first incorporated on February...

, then known as "Louisiana Normal

Normal school

A normal school is a school created to train high school graduates to be teachers. Its purpose is to establish teaching standards or norms, hence its name...

."

Thereafter, Harris was the assistant principal at Central High School in Lake Charles

Lake Charles, Louisiana

Lake Charles is the fifth-largest incorporated city in the U.S. state of Louisiana, located on Lake Charles, Prien Lake, and the Calcasieu River. Located in Calcasieu Parish, a major cultural, industrial, and educational center in the southwest region of the state, and one of the most important in...

, the seat of Calcasieu Parish

Calcasieu Parish, Louisiana

Calcasieu Parish[p] is a parish located in the U.S. state of Louisiana. The parish seat is Lake Charles. As of 2010, the parish population was 192,768...

 in southwestern Louisiana. While teaching in Winnsboro

Winnsboro, Louisiana

Winnsboro is a city in and the parish seat of Franklin Parish, Louisiana, United States. As of July 2009, the estimated city population was 4,377...

, the seat of Franklin Parish

Franklin Parish, Louisiana

-Demographics:As of the census of 2000, there were 21,263 people, 7,754 households, and 5,706 families residing in the parish. The population density was 34 people per square mile . There were 8,623 housing units at an average density of 14 per square mile...

 south of Monroe

Monroe, Louisiana

Monroe is a city in and the parish seat of Ouachita Parish, Louisiana, United States. As of the 2000 census, the city had a total population of 53,107, making it the eighth largest city in Louisiana. A July 1, 2007, United States Census Bureau estimate placed the population at 51,208, but 51,636...

, he married the former Minnie Earle and converted to the Methodist denomination. The couple had one child, Sadie Grace. In 1897, Harris was again on the move, for he was named principal of St. Landry High School in Opelousas

Opelousas, Louisiana

Opelousas is a city in and the parish seat of St. Landry Parish, Louisiana, United States. It lies at the junction of Interstate 49 and U.S. Route 190. The population was 22,860 at the 2000 census. Although the 2006 population estimate was 23,222, a 2004 annexation should put the city's...

 in St. Landry Parish

St. Landry Parish, Louisiana

St. Landry Parish is a parish located in the U.S. state of Louisiana. It is at the heart of Acadian/Cajun culture and heritage in Louisiana. The parish seat is Opelousas. According to the 2010 census, the population of St. Landry Parish is 83,384.St...

. He also studied and taught part-time at Louisiana State University

Louisiana State University

Louisiana State University and Agricultural and Mechanical College, most often referred to as Louisiana State University, or LSU, is a public coeducational university located in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. The University was founded in 1853 in what is now known as Pineville, Louisiana, under the name...

 in Baton Rouge

Baton Rouge, Louisiana

Baton Rouge is the capital of the U.S. state of Louisiana. It is located in East Baton Rouge Parish and is the second-largest city in the state.Baton Rouge is a major industrial, petrochemical, medical, and research center of the American South...

 at that time. Minnie died in 1899. The next year, he wed the former Mary Elizabeth Blackshear Evans, a widow with three small sons. In 1900, he briefly attended the University of Chicago

University of Chicago

The University of Chicago is a private research university in Chicago, Illinois, USA. It was founded by the American Baptist Education Society with a donation from oil magnate and philanthropist John D. Rockefeller and incorporated in 1890...

, and in 1901 he studied for a summer session at Harvard University

Harvard University

Harvard University is a private Ivy League university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States, established in 1636 by the Massachusetts legislature. Harvard is the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States and the first corporation chartered in the country...

 in Cambridge, Massachusetts

Cambridge, Massachusetts

Cambridge is a city in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States, in the Greater Boston area. It was named in honor of the University of Cambridge in England, an important center of the Puritan theology embraced by the town's founders. Cambridge is home to two of the world's most prominent...

.

In 1903, he was named the principal of the large Baton Rouge High School. He also found time to take law courses at the Louisiana State University Law Center. For a time, he left professional education and sold life insurance

Life insurance

Life insurance is a contract between an insurance policy holder and an insurer, where the insurer promises to pay a designated beneficiary a sum of money upon the death of the insured person. Depending on the contract, other events such as terminal illness or critical illness may also trigger...

. Then, he was appointed state education superintendent in August 1908. Oddly, he did not finally receive his Bachelor of Arts

Bachelor of Arts

A Bachelor of Arts , from the Latin artium baccalaureus, is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate course or program in either the liberal arts, the sciences, or both...

 degree from LSU until 1922. He procured the Master of Arts

Master of Arts (postgraduate)

A Master of Arts from the Latin Magister Artium, is a type of Master's degree awarded by universities in many countries. The M.A. is usually contrasted with the M.S. or M.Sc. degrees...

, also from LSU, in 1924. He received an honorary doctor of laws degree from LSU in 1935.

State superintendent

Under Harris' tenure in the state education department in Baton Rouge, the system of combined local and state financial support for public schools was established. More consolidated schools replaced traditional one-room facilities in rural

Rural

Rural areas or the country or countryside are areas that are not urbanized, though when large areas are described, country towns and smaller cities will be included. They have a low population density, and typically much of the land is devoted to agriculture...

 areas. Standards for teacher certification were increased to the minimum level of a bachelor's degree. State laws were passed regarding teacher tenure

Tenure

Tenure commonly refers to life tenure in a job and specifically to a senior academic's contractual right not to have his or her position terminated without just cause.-19th century:...

 and retirement. A system of state-operated vocational schools was established. Louisiana state colleges became four-year degree granting institutions with improved physical plants and financial support.

On November 17, 1927, Harris attended the dedication of the former Homer High School and Junior College building in his home parish. Another speaker at the event was Claiborne Parish superintendent John Sparks Patton

John Sparks Patton

John Sparks Patton was a Louisiana politician and educator who was an early advocate of taxpayer-funded school textbooks and a member of the Long faction of his state's Democratic Party....

, like Harris an ally of the Longs.

In 1938, the legislature established the T. H Harris Scholarships to assist students in obtaining a college education. The legislation was sponsored in the Louisiana House of Representatives

Louisiana State Legislature

The Louisiana State Legislature is the state legislature of the U.S. state of Louisiana. It is bicameral body, comprising the lower house, the Louisiana House of Representatives with 105 representatives, and the upper house, the Louisiana Senate with 39 senators...

 by Lether Frazar

Lether Frazar

Lether Edward Frazar was the Democratic lieutenant governor of Louisiana under Governor Earl Kemp Long from 1956-1960, who had earlier, as a member of the Louisiana House of Representatives from Beauregard Parish, authored the state teacher retirement law...

 of Lake Charles, an educator and later the lieutenant governor

Lieutenant governor

A lieutenant governor or lieutenant-governor is a high officer of state, whose precise role and rank vary by jurisdiction, but is often the deputy or lieutenant to or ranking under a governor — a "second-in-command"...

.

After thirty-two years in office, Harris was defeated for renomination in 1940 by the anti-Long John E. Coxe, who was swept to victory on the intraparty ticket of successful gubernatorial candidate Sam Houston Jones, the winner over Governor Earl Kemp Long.

The T.H. Harris Middle School in Metairie

Metairie, Louisiana

Metairie is a census-designated place in Jefferson Parish, Louisiana, United States and is a major part of the New Orleans Metropolitan Area. Metairie is the largest community in Jefferson Parish. It is an unincorporated area that would be larger than most of the state's cities if it were...

 in Jefferson Parish

Jefferson Parish, Louisiana

Jefferson Parish is a parish in Louisiana, United States that includes most of the suburbs of New Orleans. The seat of parish government is Gretna....

 in the New Orleans suburbs bears his name. So does the T.H. Harris Campus of Louisiana Technical College

Louisiana Technical College

Louisiana Technical College is an institute for professional technical education in the state of Louisiana, with campuses across the state. Louisiana Technical College has no affiliation to Louisiana Tech University.-History:...

 in Opelousas, where he had been a school principal early in his career.The T. H. Harris Auditorium on the campus of historically black Grambling State University

Grambling State University

Grambling State University is a historically black , public, coeducational university, located in Grambling, Louisiana. The university is the home of legendary football coach Eddie Robinson and is on the Louisiana African American Heritage Trail.-Academics:Grambling State University provides over...

 in Lincoln Parish

Lincoln Parish, Louisiana

Lincoln Parish is a parish located in the U.S. state of Louisiana. The parish seat is Ruston. In 2004, its population was estimated to be 42,382...

 is also named in his honor.

John Coxe's successor in the position, Shelby M. Jackson

Shelby M. Jackson

Shelby M. Jackson was a Democratic superintendent of public education in Louisiana who served from 1948-1964. In the early 1960s, he tried in vain to block federally-authorized school desegregation. Jackson was posthumously honored in 1994, by the naming of the "Shelby M...

 of Concordia Parish

Concordia Parish, Louisiana

Concordia Parish borders the Mississippi River in eastern Louisiana. The parish seat is Vidalia. As of 2000, the population was 20,247. It is part of the Natchez, MS–LA Micropolitan Statistical Area.-Prehistory:...

, served from 1948 to 1964and like Harris became particularly well-known across the state.

Harris died shortly before his 73rd birthday. He is interred at Roselawn Memorial Park in Baton Rouge.