Black Education in Orange County
Orange, Orange County, Texas
Marker Inscription
Schools for Orange County’s black children were held in churches and private homes as early as the 1870s. In 1887 a black school was opened in the Duncan Woods community, and another was soon established in Orange. Known as Orange Colored School, it was renamed in 1930 in honor of educator Robert Russa Moton and again in 1946 for longtime principal Emma H. Wallace. Another elementary school was located near Rebeck Crossing in the northern part of the city, and by 1960 Franklin Elementary and North Junior High were in operation. (1988)
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
As early as the 1870s, Orange County's Black families held school in churches and private homes, and by 1887 dedicated schools appeared in the Duncan Woods community and in Orange itself. The Orange Colored School was later renamed to honor educator Robert Russa Moton and again for longtime principal Emma H. Wallace. By 1960 the community supported additional schools including Franklin Elementary and North Junior High.
Why it matters
The story maps the determination of a Black community to educate its children through decades of segregation, when schooling had to be improvised before it could be institutionalized.
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Related people
- · Robert Russa Moton
- · Emma H. Wallace
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Salem United Methodist Church
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Six months after emancipation reached Texas in 1865, Black Methodists organized a mission conference on Christmas Day, and by 1868 its Orange mission was holding worship services. Formally named Salem Methodist Episcopal Church in 1873, the congregation built a frame church, hosted classes for African American schoolchildren, and grew steadily through the twentieth century. Its members became community leaders — ministers, educators, civil rights activists, an NAACP vice president, and the first Black and first female mayor of Orange.
St. Therese Catholic Church
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St. Therese parish grew out of the missionary work of the Josephite society, which ministered to African American Catholics. In 1924 a Josephite priest said mass for three Black families in Orange and saw promise in the community, and for a dozen years priests held services in homes and borrowed spaces. A Boston benefactor funded a church building dedicated in 1936 to St. Therese, patron of Catholic missions, and the parish flourished as Orange's shipbuilding boom swelled the town during World War II, adding a school and parish hall by 1945.
Black Education in Orange County
Orange, TX
African American education in Orange County began in the 1870s in private homes and churches, then took root in schoolhouses like Duncan Woods No. 3 and the Orange Colored School after the county organized its districts in 1887. Under a succession of dedicated teachers and principals, the city school grew into Moton Elementary and High School, renamed for Tuskegee's Robert Russa Moton and later for local educator Emma Henderson Wallace, and celebrated for its campus, sports, and band. The system served hundreds of students and kept building new facilities right up to integration in 1966.
Emma Henderson Wallace
Orange, TX
Born in Waxahachie in 1876 and trained at Prairie View College, Emma Henderson Wallace came to Orange in 1901 as one of four teachers at the Orange Colored School, which met inside local Black churches. She joined the public school faculty in 1914 and in 1933 became principal of Moton High School, building up its library, athletic courts, band, choir, and student clubs over thirteen years. In 1946 the school was renamed Emma H. Wallace High School in her honor, a lasting tribute to a career devoted to educating Orange's African American youth.