Haydee Campbell (died October 25, 1921) was an American educator, an advocate for kindergarten for African-American children. (Her first name is also spelled Haidee in some sources.)
Early life Haydee E. Benchley was born in Texas. She attended Oberlin College.Monroe Alphus Majors, Noted Negro Women: Their Triumphs and Activities (Donohue & Henneberry 1893): 329. She was the first black teacher to study with Susan Blow at the St. Louis Kindergarten Training School.Blythe Farb Heinitz and Betty Leibovich, with Charlotte Jean Anderson, "History of Early Childhood Teacher Education" in Leslie J. Couse and Sarah L. Recchia, eds., Handbook of Early Childhood Teacher Education (Routledge 2015).
Career Campbell taught kindergarten in St. Louis, Missouri.John William Gibson, The Colored American from Slavery to Honorable Citizenship (J. L. Nichols 1903): 122. In 1882, Haydee Campbell was hired to supervise kindergarten programs for African-American children in the public schools of St. Louis. Beginning in 1896, she chaired the Kindergarten Department of the National Association of Colored Women's Clubs.Barbara Beatty, Preschool Education in America: The Culture of Young Children from the Colonial Era to the Present (Yale University Press 1997): 109. In 1899, she addressed the NACW national convention in Chicago on the topic "Why the National Association of Colored Women Should Devise Means for Establishing Kindergartens"."American Kindergarteners" Kindergarten Magazine 12(1900): 64. An attendee reported, "Her enunciation was exquisite...her words were well chosen and her subject well handled."Rebecca Stiles Taylor, "A True Story of 50 Years of Lifting and Climbing" Chicago Defender (February 18, 1950): 10. In 1903, she managed the kindergarten programming at the Tuskegee Institute Summer School for Teachers.Untitled brief news item, The Colored American (June 13, 1903): 11. via Newspapers.com
During World War I she was active with provisions for black soldiers in the War Camp Community Service at Manhattan, Kansas,"Discuss Hospitality Plans" Manhattan Republic (February 13, 1919): 1. via Newspapers.com until ill health took her from that work."Mrs. Haydee Campbell Ill" Manhattan Daily Nationalist (February 21, 1919): 1. via Newspapers.com
Personal life Haydee Benchley married J. Wesley Campbell; they had one daughter. Haydee Campbell died a widow in 1921, in St. Louis.Death notices, St. Louis Star and Times (October 27, 1921): 19. via Newspapers.com
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