Cedar Branch Community School
Grapeland, Houston County, Texas
Marker Inscription
Cedar Branch Community School The first written record of a school for the children of Cedar Branch appears in the Houston County Judge's Report of 1888. When the members of Cedar Branch Church constructed a new sanctuary in 1895, they donated the previous church building for use as a schoolhouse. By 1911, Cedar Branch had been designated as Common School District No. 8, and a two-room schoolhouse was later built on this site with support from the Julius Rosenwald Fund. In 1952, along with other nearby schools, Cedar Branch Community School District consolidated with Grapeland Independent School District. Long a focal point of the community, Cedar Branch School remains important to the area's heritage. (2002)
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
Schooling at Cedar Branch dates to at least 1888, and in 1895 the local church donated its old sanctuary to serve as a schoolhouse. By 1911 the settlement was its own common-school district, and a two-room school later rose on this site with help from the Julius Rosenwald Fund, the philanthropy famous for financing schools for African-American children across the rural South. The school anchored the community until it consolidated with Grapeland in 1952.
Why it matters
Rosenwald-aided schools were a landmark partnership between Black communities and philanthropy that expanded education for African-American children when Southern states refused to fund it equally.
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Related people
- · Julius Rosenwald
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Cedar Branch Community and Church
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Cedar Branch grew from an extraordinary act at the close of slavery: a planter couple deeded parcels of their own cotton plantation to each of their former slaves, who built a community on the land. The freedmen organized a church in 1862 and raised a sanctuary in 1864, and by 1888 a school met in the church building—the church remaining the community's heart to this day.
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