This historic marker is located at 20 Cryer Street, inside the T. A. Crittenden Village (public housing) at the city of Bartlett's public housing office off of Texas 95. Decades ago, this was the site of the Booker T Washington School, a school for Bartlett's African-American students in the era of school segregation in Bartlett.
In 1952, this segregated system was firmly in place. Although black students in Bartlett had had a school to attend since 1909, that school was not accredited and did not go to grade 12 until the late 1940s. The first graduation exercises for what was known as the Bartlett Colored School were held in 1949.
This news article covered the Bartlett Colored School Graduation exercises in 1952. We found the Bartlett newspaper on the Portal to Texas History website here: (
visit link)
"The Bartlett Tribune and News
Friday May 23rd 1952
COLORED SCHOOL EXERCISES TO BE SUNDAY AND MONDAY
Commencement exercises of the Bartlett Colored School will be held Monday evening, May 26, beginning at 8 o’clock. Baccalaureate services are planned for Sunday morning at 11 o’clock.
Six Students will receive diplomas at the commencement exercises. They are: Doretta Mae Smith, valedictorian: Francis Hanible, salutatorian; Rudolph flowers, Dorothy Lee, Oakland, Linwood Sanders, and Tommy Joe Steward.
F. R. Rice, principal of Blackshear School of Austin, will be commencement speaker, and Rev. N. R. Henderson of the Church of God in Christ, San Antonio, will bring the baccalaureate address."
We would note that the graduation exercises for the whites-only Bartlett High School and Bartlett Grammar School got a MUCH more detailed story, with a photo.
Two historic markers tell the story of the segregated schools of Bartlett. One is here, at the site of this waymark. The other is down a dirt road across town, where the first school for Bartlett's black students was located.
The markers read as follows:
"SITE OF BOOKER T WASHINGTON SCHOOL
With overcrowded buildings at the African American school in southwestern Bartlett, the Bartlett trustees bought four buildings from Camp Swift in Bastrop to enlarge the facilities. A bond issue passed in 1948, and plans began for a U-shaped building. Otto Lange served as contractor for the schoolhouse, built here, on the former site of the Bartlett Civilian Conservation Corps Camp.
Gentry "Prof" Powell, Sr., and his wife, who had both served at the original Bartlett Colored School, moved with the students to the new school building in Fall 1949; earlier that year, in May, the school had celebrated its first Junior-Senior Prom and graduation, having become a Class B Accredited 12-grade school the previous school year. The students and teachers celebrated the new building on September 16, 1949, and for the next several years continued growing, as students from the nearby communities of Holland, Granger and Davilla transferred to the Bartlett Colored School. As a Class A Accredited high school, it became the Booker T. Washington School in 1957 in honor of the famed black educator.
As the school grew, it gained success in all areas, competing in University Interscholastic events in sports and academic subjects, including debate, spelling, declamation and music. Coach Gentry Powell led his football and track and field teams to championship games, winning at both district and state levels.
Bartlett schools integrated in 1965, and the Powells moved with other dedicated teachers to Bartlett High School, where they continued as educators. Today, an alumni group preserves the heritage of the early African American school and its role in the development of the community. (2003)
[2nd plaque]
Under Marguerite C. Powell, Principal 1947-1965,
*New school built for African Americans
*Name Changed to Booker T Washington School
*Became Class A accredited school"
and across town:
"SITE OF BARTLETT COLORED SCHOOL
The farming community of Bartlett was founded in 1882 when the Missouri, Kansas & Texas Railroad reached the town, which is situated on the county line between Bell and Williamson counties. By 1912, a second railway served the town, and Bartlett became a shipping point for area farm and ranch products.
When the Bartlett Public School built a brick schoolhouse in 1909, the school district moved its existing six-room frame classroom building to this site to become the first local school for African American students. When the six-room schoolhouse burned in 1919, Dave Johnson was given the contract to build a new one-story, four-room structure using recycled lumber. Decades later, in 1945, half of a building from the Goodeville School District was moved to the site to serve as a shop and vocational agriculture building.
The Bartlett Colored School, unaccredited at that time, only went through the tenth grade; few students from area rural populations could get to the schoolhouse, and fewer still made the trip to Temple or Austin to complete their education and graduate. Parents and teachers, united through a parent teacher association formed in 1933, continued improvements and attracted a dedicated couple from Prairie View A&M to move to Bartlett in 1946. Gentry "Prof" Powell, Sr. (1909-1976), and his wife acted as principals, teachers and coaches. They brought in students from the area with a school bus and driver granted by the school district at the start of the 1946-47 school year. By summer 1947, attendance had doubled to more than 160, and the school became an accredited 12-grade system. With a strong curriculum and new sports programs, the Bartlett school grew, moving in 1949 to the north side of the city, on Cryer Drive. (2003)
[2nd plaque]
Dedicated principals who served at Bartlett Colored School included
G. B. Blackburn (1909-1911)
S. E. Cooper (1911-1945) and
John R. Powell, Ph.D. (1945-1946)
[3rd plaque]
Under Marguerite C. Powell, Principal 1947-1965, the 10-grade, unaccredited system became a Class B, Accredited 12-grade school and in May 1949 held first graduation ceremonies."