Site of Booker T. Washington High School - Texas Historical Markers on Waymarking.com

This is a small park, with a set of brick benches, and accompanying the historical marker is a slab of black granite, showing the school and noting its operation from 1922-1963. Atop it is a plaque with some additional information:

"Until This is a High School,
I Won't Be Your Principal"

Prior to 1922 the black community of Wichita Falls did not have a high school. When A.E. Holland was asked to become the principal, he made the above statement. In 1922 Booker T. Washington became a high school when it enrolled 11th graders as members of the class of 1924.

The black community of Wichita Falls traces its educational heritage back to 1886. Cora Robinson taught the Colored School for $30.00 a month for the 1886-1887 school year. Fire destroyed all school records from 1889-1894. Alice B. Heddric taught in a one-room school located on Mill Street at the M.K.T. tracks for $40.00 a month from 1895 to 1898. The records from 1898 to 1903 do not show any "colored school" teachers. Queeny Hunter taught next during the 1903-1904 school year. No teacher is recorded for the 1904-1905 term.

Marker Number: 13308 Marker Text: Records indicate that by 1886, when Cora Robinson was chosen as a teacher, Wichita County operated at least one school for African American students in the Wichita Falls area. Other early teachers included A.L. Hedrick and M.E. Hunter, and students attended classes at different times in facilities on Mill, Park and Sullivan streets. Walter Downing and C.C. Trimble served as principals for many years, but it was during the principalship of H.D. Robinson that a three-story brick school building was constructed at this site. In 1921, former Wichita Falls mayor Jim Marlow sold eight acres in this section of town to create a new African American business and social center. The community chose this site for the Booker T. Washington School, named for the noted educator and author. The school became a neighborhood focal point, and businesses developed around it that further placed it at the center of Wichita Falls' African American community. In 1922, A.E. Holland became the school's principal. He served until 1946, and under his leadership the school became a Class A accredited campus, and additional facilities, including a cafeteria and lighted football field, were constructed. The acclaimed C.E. Jackson served as principal from 1946 to 1963, during which time the district added a gym and an adjacent elementary school, also named for Washington. The high school moved to a site on Harding Street in 1963, and the district integrated in 1969, razing the former Washington High School building in 1971. Since that time, the community has continued using other buildings on the campus, including the cafeteria, which now serves as a center for the school's proud alumni. (2006)

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