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.
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Related people
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Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Paul Quinn College
Waco, TX
Founded April 4, 1872, in Austin by the African Methodist Episcopal Church as an institute for Black youth, this school taught newly freed people trades like blacksmithing, carpentry, and tanning during Reconstruction. Moved to Waco in 1881 and renamed for Bishop William Paul Quinn, its first building rose from a 'ten cents a brick' campaign that channeled the hopes of a desperately poor community. It grew into Texas's oldest liberal arts college for African Americans, sustained across generations by its motto, 'A past to cherish, a future to fulfill.'
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G. W. Carver High School
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Site of First Church Building in Waco
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Around 1850, when Waco was a rough young settlement on the Brazos, worshipers reportedly crowded into a log house to hear the itinerant Methodist preacher Joseph P. Sneed — the beginning, by local tradition, of the town's first congregation. Over more than a century that flock moved through a frame chapel, a brick church, and the halls of Waco Female College before settling into ever-grander sanctuaries. Known affectionately as the "Mother Church," it traced the growth of Waco itself from log cabins to a thriving Texas city.