Henry Damon Davidson

Henry Damon Davidson (December 16, 1869 – February 21, 1955), sometimes noted as Henry Damon, or H. D. Davidson, was an American academic administrator, educator, author, and church leader in Centreville, Alabama. He founded the Bibb County Training School, known first as Centerville Industrial Institute in 1900. He was sometimes referred to as Bibb County's "black educator".

Life and career Henry Damon Davidson was born on December 16, 1869, at the Davidson Plantation (or Davidson–Smitherman House) in Bibb County, Alabama.

Davidson was active in Mt. Sinai African Methodist Episcopal church, and was presented with an honored in 1945 by the Mt. Sinai AME Church. He was the author of, Inching Along; or, the Life and Works of an Alabama Farm Boy, An Autobiography (1944).

Death and legacy Davidson died from a short illness on February 21, 1955, in the hospital in Selma, Alabama.

Following a fire in the former school building, a new school was completed in 1966 and named in honor of Davidson, however it closed shortly after in 1969. By 2008, it was known as Centreville Middle School. It includes the Henry Damon Davidson Library and Museum, which opened in 2017. An alumni association is also named for him.

A letter he wrote to donor Emily Howland, for whom the school's Howland Hall was named, survives.