Rosenwald School - Calvert, TX
Posted by: 
WalksfarTX
N 30° 58.343 W 096° 40.816
14R E 721548 N 3428850
The Calvert Colored School, a C-shaped, red-brick building with an auditorium and stage, opened in 1929 for children in 1st through 11th grade.
Waymark Code: WMY6WH
Location: Texas, United States
Date Posted: 05/02/2018
Views: 1
Texas Historic Commission
In 1917, Julius Rosenwald, president of Sears, Roebuck and Co. of Chicago, established the Julius Rosenwald Fund to support the construction of schools for African-American children in the southern United States. Between 1920 and 1932, the program donated more than $28 million in fifteen states, and resulted in 527 funded buildings on approximately 466 school campuses in Texas.
Rosenwald Website
The Calvert Colored School’s first principal, W.D. Spigner (spy-g-ner), inspired the local African American community and convinced the school board to make improvements such as indoor plumbing in 1948, the addition of a 12th grade class in the early 1950s, and a gymnasium in 1957. As annual enrollment climbed to 375, around half the senior class went on to college, often at historically black Texas colleges such as Prairie View A&M and Huston-Tillotson University. The school’s most famous former student is Tom Bradley, who was elected mayor of Los Angeles.
The school building became an elementary in the 1970s and was renamed W.D. Spigner Elementary, in honor of its longtime principal. In 2010, the school closed due to declining enrollment city wide. The school district gave the land and the building to the Calvert Colored W.D. Spigner Alumni Association Inc., which is based in Dallas and is turning it into a multi-purpose center. The association holds its quarterly board meetings and annual reunions on the premises.