A. J. Moore High School
Waco, McLennan County, Texas
Marker Inscription
In 1875 professor A.J. Moore of Paul Quinn College, concerned over the lack of quality education for Waco's negro population, began teaching small groups of children in his home. The first schoolhouse, a frame building that had been relocated east of this site, had formerly served as a hospital. In 1923, the frame schoolhouse was replaced with a brick building. The school was renamed for its founder, A.J. Moore, who served as principal from 1881 to 1905. As the first school in Waco designated to educate the city's negro youth, A.J. Moore High School was an important institution in the community. Until 1952, Moore High housed students from grades one through twelve from 1952 to 1971 it served grades seven through twelve only. Moore High was closed in 1971. More than 4,000 students were graduated form A.J. Moore High School during its nearly 100 years of service. Many of them have made significant contributions in the fields of education, medicine, religion, law, public health, business, engineering, law enforcement, social services,theater, sports, and military service. (1985)
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
In 1875 Professor A. J. Moore of Paul Quinn College, troubled by the lack of quality schooling for Waco's Black children, began teaching small groups in his home. The effort grew into Waco's first school for Black youth, moving from a repurposed frame hospital building into a brick schoolhouse in 1923 and taking Moore's name. Over nearly a century it graduated more than 4,000 students before closing in 1971, sending alumni into medicine, law, education, and countless other fields.
Why it matters
A. J. Moore High School shows how Black educators built lasting institutions of opportunity under segregation, shaping generations of community leaders.
The story behind this marker
AI contextThe era
In the decade after the Civil War, newly freed Black Texans placed enormous hope in education. Learning to read and write had often been forbidden under slavery, and schooling became one of the first things freedpeople built for themselves, through churches, community groups, and determined teachers.
Public schooling in Texas during Reconstruction and after was badly underfunded, and Black communities received far less than white ones. As segregation hardened into law across the South in the late nineteenth century, Black families learned that if their children were going to receive a real education, much of the work would fall to their own communities.
Waco, a growing city on the Brazos River, became an important center for Black education in Texas. Paul Quinn College, founded by the African Methodist Episcopal Church to educate formerly enslaved people and their children, became part of that story, and its faculty helped shape learning in the city beyond its own classrooms.
People & events
In 1875, Professor A. J. Moore of Paul Quinn College looked at the state of schooling for Waco's Black children and decided it was not good enough. He began teaching small groups of children in his own home, a modest start that would grow into one of the city's most important institutions.
The school's first real schoolhouse was a frame building that had once been used as a hospital, later moved east of the marker's location. Moore led the school as principal from 1881 to 1905, and it eventually took his name. In 1923, the old frame building gave way to a brick schoolhouse, a sign of permanence and pride for the community it served.
For most of its history, Moore taught students from first through twelfth grade. From 1952 it served grades seven through twelve, until it closed in 1971. Over its nearly hundred years, more than 4,000 students graduated, and many went on to careers in education, medicine, religion, law, public health, business, engineering, law enforcement, social services, theater, sports, and military service.
Its place in the American story
A. J. Moore High School is part of a national story about how Black Americans built their own institutions in the face of segregation. Across the South, schools like this one were often underfunded by the systems that ran them, yet they produced teachers, doctors, ministers, and leaders who strengthened their communities for generations.
These schools were more than classrooms. They were gathering places, sources of pride, and proving grounds for Black professionals, especially the teachers who devoted their careers to them. Many former students of schools like Moore remember them as places where educators expected excellence even when the wider society did not.
Moore's closing in 1971 came during the era when school districts across the country were dismantling segregated systems after the Supreme Court's Brown v. Board of Education decision. Desegregation was a hard-won victory, but it also meant that many beloved Black schools were closed, and with them went a center of community life. Remembering Moore keeps that complicated history in view.
If you visit
You'll find this marker in Waco, McLennan County. As you stand here, picture the long arc of the school's life: a teacher gathering children in his home, a former hospital put to new use, and finally a brick school that generations of students called their own.
Take a moment to think about the alumni the marker describes, the teachers, nurses, lawyers, ministers, soldiers, and performers who passed through this place. Their careers spread the school's influence far beyond this neighborhood.
Waco is an easy stop along the I-35 corridor between Dallas and Austin. If you are exploring the city's history, this marker pairs well with other sites connected to Waco's Black community and its long tradition of education.
Written by AI to add context, grounded in the marker’s inscription and the historical record. The inscription above is the original, unaltered text.
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Related people
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Themes & tags
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