Edwin Augustus Harleston

Edwin Augustus Harleston (March 14, 1882 – May 10, 1931) was an American artist and founding president of the Charleston, South Carolina, branch of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. He is known for his realistic portraits of African Americans inspired by classical paintings. He was excluded from the whites-only artistic movement later known as the Charleston Renaissance.

Personal life He was born in Charleston, South Carolina, on March 14, 1882.

Harleston won a scholarship to study at the Avery Normal Institute, from which he graduated as valedictorian in 1900. He went on to Atlanta University, where he studied chemistry and sociology and took courses under W. E. B. Du Bois, who became a lifelong friend. He became active in local civil rights groups and in 1917 became founding president of Charleston's newly formed branch of the NAACP. One campaign he led succeeded in getting the local public school system to hire Black teachers. It was while attending this school that Edwin met W.E.B. Du Bois, who emphasized to Harleston that he should use his privilege for "service and duty to the race." Harleston studied anatomy under Edmund Tarbel l. Edwin studied landscape painting at the Art Institute of Chicago over two summers.

While studying at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, Harleston was the only Black student in a class of 84 students.

Harleston's papers are held by the South Carolina Historical Society and Emory University's Stuart A. Rose Manuscript, Archives, and Rare Book Library.