Black Education in Chambers County
Anahuac, Chambers County, Texas
Marker Inscription
The Texas Legislature formed Chambers County in 1858, and Wallisville became the county's first seat of government. The 1869 Texas Constitution called for the creation of free public schools for white and black children to be partially funded by the state. That same year, the Freedmen's Bureau was instrumental in having a school for African Americans built in Wallisville. The one-room schoolhouse, later used for other purposes, served students for many years. During the 1879-1880 school year, approximately 60 students attended classes there. By the late 1880s, the county's African American students were served by schools in Double Bayou, Wallisville, Black Branch, Turtle Bayou, Old River and Cedar Bayou. Like many early Texas schools, each organized annually, and the school year was determined by how many months a community could pay a teacher. At the turn of the century, Chambers County supported 28 schools and more than 800 students, black and white. At that time, the community of Anahuac began growing, and its black population sent students to classes at St. James Methodist Church, which organized in 1908, the same year Anahuac became county seat. Throughout the 20th century, Chambers County's education system improved with the organization of school districts and expanded state standards for educators. Two high schools in the county -- George Washington Carver and Double Bayou -- accommodated the older African American students. By 1966, all of Chambers County schools had been desegregated, and many of the facilities and staff from the former black schools were absorbed into the new integrated system as county residents moved into a new era of education. (2006)
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
When the 1869 Texas Constitution called for public schools open to Black and white children, the Freedmen's Bureau helped build a one-room schoolhouse for African Americans at Wallisville, one of the county's first. Over the following decades Black schools spread to Double Bayou, Turtle Bayou, and other communities, their sessions lasting only as long as families could pay a teacher, and children in Anahuac attended classes at St. James Methodist Church. Segregated high schools like George Washington Carver served older students until desegregation was completed in 1966.
Why it matters
The story maps the long arc of African American education in the rural South — from Reconstruction's first freedmen's schools through decades of segregation to integration.
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Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
George Washington Carver High School
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This site tells the story of Black education in Baytown, beginning in 1921 with the Goose Creek School for Coloreds, whose classes met partly in Mt. Rose Baptist Church. Renamed in 1940 for the scientist and educator George Washington Carver and accredited as a four-year high school in 1941, Carver became one of the state's top segregated schools, winning nine state band titles and eight athletic championships in the Prairie View Interscholastic League. The high school closed in 1967 as desegregation ended the era of separate Black schools, but the Carver name still anchors education in the community.
Fidelity Schools
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By 1922, the African American children of the Clinton community—renamed Galena Park in 1936—attended a small school, and in the early 1930s a building once used by white students was moved to the Fidelity Addition and reopened for Black pupils. As the community grew, so did Fidelity School, which added high school courses in 1950 and split into Fidelity Manor Elementary and High School by the mid-1950s. Its students won championships and produced educators, veterans, and political leaders. Desegregation closed both schools in 1970, and the buildings were razed in 1986.
Lorraine Crosby School
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The education of Hitchcock's African American children began in 1903 in a private home and a Baptist church annex, and a permanent school opened in 1914 after residents raised money through fish fries and other fundraisers to buy the lot. Long known as the Hitchcock Colored School, it was renamed in 1949 for beloved teacher and principal Lorraine Crosby. Despite scarce funding, staff and families built up sports teams and a scout troop; the school graduated classes from 1960 until integration in the mid-1960s.
Asbury Memorial United Methodist Church
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In 1866, freedman William Burley came to Harrisburg to minister to newly emancipated African Americans, buying land along Brays Bayou for a home and a church that became the Methodist Episcopal Church of Harrisburg. The Freedmen's Bureau sponsored a community school on the grounds until 1870, an early Black public school for the area, and the congregation grew into a focal point of Black community life. Through renamings that reflected its history, it became Asbury Memorial United Methodist Church, and its members included Civil War veteran Wilson Burley of the 84th U.S. Colored Infantry and Tom Blue, once enslaved by Sam Houston.