Booker T. Washington School
Arlington, Tarrant County, Texas
Marker Inscription
SERVING THE AFRICAN-AMERICAN STUDENTS OF ARLINGTON, BOOKER T. WASHINGTON SCHOOL WAS A VITAL INSTITUTION IN THE CITY. IT HAD ITS ROOTS IN ARLINGTON’S FIRST BLACK SCHOOL, WHICH WAS IN PLACE BY THE 1890s. THE SCHOOL SERVED THE GROWING AFRICAN-AMERICAN COMMUNITY KNOWN AS THE HILL, LOCATED NORTHWEST OF THE ORIGINAL TOWN BOUNDARIES. THE CHURCH OF GOD IN CHRIST FURNISHED ADDITIONAL CLASS SPACE AS NEEDED. IN 1902, THE SCHOOL BECAME PART OF THE NEWLY FORMED ARLINGTON INDEPENDENT SCHOOL DISTRICT. GEORGE STEVENS AND GLORIA ECHOLS WERE APPOINTED AS TEACHERS, WITH STEVENS ALSO SERVING AS PRINCIPAL; BOTH LIVED IN THE NEIGHBORHOOD AND ARE NOTED FOR THEIR IMPACT IN THE LIVES OF THEIR YOUNG STUDENTS. THE ORIGINAL SCHOOL BUILDING WAS REPLACED AFTER A SEVERE 1903 STORM. STUDENTS ATTENDED THE SCHOOL UNTIL EIGHTH GRADE, AT WHICH POINT THEY WENT TO I.M. TERRELL HIGH SCHOOL IN FORT WORTH. A NEW FACILITY OPENED AT 500 HOUSTON STREET IN 1954, OFFICIALLY NAMED FOR EDUCATOR BOOKER T. WASHINGTON. THE BUILDING HAD EIGHT CLASSROOMS, AN ADMINISTRATIVE OFFICE, AND A CAFETERIA; A GYMNASIUM WAS ADDED LATER. GEORGE STEVENS CONTINUED TO SERVE AS PRINCIPAL OF THE INSTITUTION. IN 1965, ARLINGTON PUBLIC SCHOOLS BEGAN FULL DESEGREGATION. BOOKER T. WASHINGTON SCHOOL CLOSED AND BECAME VEDA KNOX SCHOOL, A FACILITY FOR STUDENTS WITH SPECIAL EDUCATION NEEDS. IT WAS LATER RENAMED THE METRO MATH AND SCIENCE ACADEMY. TODAY, BOOKER T. WASHINGTON SCHOOL IS REMEMBERED AS AN ICONIC INSTITUTION IN THE HILL, PROVIDING STUDENTS WITH SKILLS AND EDUCATION THAT WOULD HELP THEM ACHIEVE SUCCESS IN THEIR PERSONAL AND PROFESSIONAL LIVES.
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
Rooted in Arlington's first Black school of the 1890s, this institution educated generations of African American children in the neighborhood known as The Hill, with the Church of God in Christ lending classroom space as needed. Teachers George Stevens and Gloria Echols lived among their students, and Stevens served as principal for decades; graduates continued on to I.M. Terrell High School in Fort Worth. A modern facility opened in 1954, named for educator Booker T. Washington, until Arlington's 1965 desegregation closed the school.
Why it matters
It documents the segregated schooling Black Texans built for themselves and the arrival of desegregation, a central chapter in the American struggle for equal education.
The story behind this marker
AI contextThe era
When this school's story begins, in the 1890s, Arlington was a small farming town between Dallas and Fort Worth, and Texas — like the entire South — lived under the rigid rule of racial segregation. Public life was split in two by law and custom, and nowhere was that division enforced more thoroughly than in the schoolhouse. Black children and white children learned apart, and the resources rarely came close to equal.
Arlington's African American community was concentrated in a neighborhood northwest of the original town, known simply as The Hill. It was there, by the 1890s, that the town's first Black school took shape — and where, when the schoolhouse ran short of room, the Church of God in Christ opened its doors to provide extra classroom space. That partnership of church and school was a hallmark of Black community life in the segregation era, when congregations were often the strongest institution a community had.
This was the Progressive era nationally, an age of reform and civic building. But for Black Texans, progress had to be built largely by their own hands, within the narrow space the law allowed.
People & events
In 1902 the school became part of the newly formed Arlington Independent School District, and two teachers were appointed who would shape generations: George Stevens, who also served as principal, and Gloria Echols. Both lived in The Hill, among the very families whose children they taught — and that nearness mattered. They were not visitors to the neighborhood; they were of it, and they are remembered for the mark they left on their young students' lives.
The early years were hard in tangible ways. A severe storm in 1903 destroyed the original building, which had to be replaced. Students attended through the eighth grade, and because their own town offered no further Black schooling, those continuing on traveled to I.M. Terrell High School over in Fort Worth — a reminder of how far a Black student sometimes had to go simply to keep learning.
In 1954 a new facility opened at 500 Houston Street, officially named for the educator Booker T. Washington — eight classrooms, an office, a cafeteria, and later a gymnasium. George Stevens was still there, still serving as principal, a thread of continuity running across half a century of the community's life.
Its place in the American story
The Booker T. Washington School belongs to one of the central chapters of American history: the education Black communities built for themselves under segregation, and the long struggle to make schooling equal. The very year the school's new building opened, 1954, the U.S. Supreme Court in Brown v. Board of Education declared segregated public schools unconstitutional — a landmark that set the nation on the road toward desegregation.
Arlington reached that turning point in 1965, when its public schools began full desegregation and the Booker T. Washington School closed as a segregated institution. Its arc — from a community school of the 1890s to its closing in the desegregation era — traces the entire era of legally separate education in a single place.
That the school was named for Booker T. Washington is fitting. Born into slavery, he became one of the most influential educators in American history, a champion of schooling as a path to self-reliance and dignity. A community that named its school for him was staking a claim to that same belief: that education was the ground on which its children's futures would be built.
If you visit
The neighborhood called The Hill is the real monument here — northwest of Arlington's original town center, it was the heart of the community this school served. Coming to the marker is a chance to recognize a place whose history is easy to overlook amid the sprawl of the modern metroplex.
As you read the marker, hold onto the human details: teachers who lived on the same streets as their students, a church that gave up its rooms so children would have somewhere to learn, and a principal whose service spanned generations. Those are the textures of a community that built its own institutions when the wider society would not.
Think, too, about what the building became — a special-education facility, then a math and science academy — a reminder that these places keep serving long after their first chapter closes. If your travels take you through the Dallas–Fort Worth area, a stop here adds a dimension the freeways hide: the story of the families of The Hill, and the school they made iconic.
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
- · George Stevens
- · Gloria Echols
- · Booker T. Washington
Themes & tags
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The Hill
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