Hardin, Joseph A. (Joseph Arthur), 1875-1954
Dates
- Existence: 1875 - 1954
Biographical Statement
Joseph A. Hardin was an active force in African American political and social circles during the early to mid 20th century. His career included positions in the medical and insurance fields, and he was active in the Republican Party. Many of Hardin's civic activities focused on the betterment of African American youth and recreational facilities.
Joseph Arthur Hardin was born July 29, 1875, in Scoba, Mississippi. Hardin was educated in his early years by private tutors. In 1890, he moved to New Orleans, and in 1895, became interested in politics, working alongside Walter L. Cohen and James Lewis, Jr. in promoting the Republican Party. In 1900, Hardin worked towards the elimination of racial bias following the wholesale disqualification of African American voters of Louisiana. The same year he organized the present Dryades Y.M.C.A., and two years later founded the first formal African American insurance company in New Orleans, the Mutual Aid Association. In 1902, Hardin also operated a drugstore and insurance company at Loyola and Tulane Avenues.
In 1904, Hardin graduated from Sarah Goodridge Memorial Medical School, New Orleans University. He also received medical training at Michael Reese Hospital and Sarah Brown School in Chicago. From 1904-1926, Hardin became a professor of anatomy, physiology, meteria medica, and nurse training at Flint Goodridge Hospital. From 1904-1954, Hardin practiced medicine in New Orleans and was a very active member of the community. In 1912, he organized the Fourth Ward Poll Tax Association. Also, in 1918, Hardin secured the building of Valena C. Jones Elementary school.
In the 1920s, Hardin became a member of the Joseph A. Craig School Community Center. On Nov 3, 1923, he became president of the Seventh Ward Civic League which equipped Valena C. Jones with a library, obtained more street lights and street improvements, and encouraged flower gardens by its members. In 1925, as a member of the NAACP, Hardin led a committee in protest upon the New Orleans Chamber of Commerce against a newly invoked segregation ordinance. Hardin also used his influence to have African American history added to the curriculum of New Orleans public schools. Hardin was also a Louisiana state alternate to the Republican Convention form 1924-1932.
In 1930, Hardin was the Memorial Day Speaker at Chalmette, Louisiana, to Grand Army of the Republic Veterans of the Spanish American War, Veterans of the World War (I) and Women's Relief Corps. He was also a member of the Orleans Parish Republican Committee and Louisiana State Republican Central Committee. The same year he also conducted a sectional survey of the Seventh Ward at the request of the Post Office Department, which resulted in the installation of house numbers, thus facilitating the delivery of mail. The following year, Hardin urged the Public School Board to furnish truant officers to save African American children on the streets from becoming, in Hardin's view, "junk". Throughout the 1930s, Hardin was instrumental in securing the following schools: Johnson Lockett, Paul Lawrence Dunbar, Booker T. Washington, Marie C. Convent and Medard H. Nelson.
From 1932-1951, Hardin was both delegate-at-large from the state of Louisiana to the National Republic Convention, as well as, delegate from the First Congressional District of Louisiana to the Republican National Convention. In 1934, Hardin secured the construction of a training school for delinquent boys, which kept them from imprisonment with hardened criminals. In the following two years, he became the president of the Federation of Civic Leagues, chairman of the Times-Picayune Doll and Toy Fund Christmas Gift Division, vice-chairman of the executive committee of Lemann Playground Association, member of the Draft Board Advisory Committee for the New Orleans Seventh Ward, and a member of Cross Roads Community Center. Hardin was also reputed to be the largest Black property owner in Louisiana.
From 1940-1953, Hardin held the office of Consul for Liberia during the administrations of Franklin D. Roosevelt and Harry S. Truman. In 1941, the Joseph A. Hardin Playground was secured, one of the first public recreational facilities for African Americans in New Orleans, after ten years of struggle. Throughout the 1940s, Hardin became a member of the State Advisory Committee for the National Youth Administration, formed a citizen's Advisory Committee for Hardin Playground, and was acclaimed New Orleans' Number One Negro Citizen.
In 1951, Hardin organized the first Cub Scout troop at Valena C. Jones School, later that year he also made monetary contributions to the Republican National Convention. In 1953, he was named an honorary member of the New Orleans Chamber of Commerce. In 1954, Hardin helped to establish the recreational facilities at Lincoln Beach.
On November 15, 1954, Joseph Arthur Hardin died. Four years following his death, the Joseph A. Hardin Elementary School was built in his honor. In 1981, a New Orleans public housing project named in Hardin's honor was constructed.