Daule School
Cuero, DeWitt County, Texas
Marker Inscription
Cuero Colored High School was founded in 1892 as the first African American school in Cuero. The building was a one-room wooden structure built on lot fourteen of the Morgantown addition to the city. Prior to the 1890s, schools for black children were available in the rural communities. A tax bond was passed to allow the first public school for black children to be built. Most of the pupils came from farm families and could only attend school when they were not working. The first teacher was C.H. Griggs, a 32-year-old graduate from the Southern University of Baton Rouge. The principal of the school was Eugene Daule, who played an important role in black education progress in Dewitt County for the next 40 years. He held extra literary programs for students and used the materials available to the school as best he could, though it was obvious that the schools were not equal in funding and supplies. In 1937, the name of Cuero Colored High school was changed to Daule High School. A new school building was constructed in 1948 using the latest school building design, built of hollow tile and concrete and painted white. In 1947, Principal George Anderson introduced a music program. Under the leadership of David Hegwood, the band excelled and received many Division I ratings at state competitions. The school also excelled in academics, agriculture, sports, homemaking and choir. The school closed in 1965 when Cuero public schools integrated. Daule High School and Cuero Colored High School remind us of the struggles of the black community and their resolution in the face of adversity.
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
Founded in 1892 as a one-room wooden schoolhouse, Cuero Colored High School was the town's first school for Black children, drawing pupils from farm families who could attend only when field work allowed. Principal Eugene Daule guided Black education in DeWitt County for four decades, stretching meager, unequal resources as far as they would go; the school was renamed in his honor in 1937. Under later leaders it built a celebrated band and a broad curriculum before closing in 1965 when Cuero's schools finally integrated.
Why it matters
The school embodies both the injustice of separate-and-unequal education and the determination of a Black community that built excellence in spite of it.
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Related people
- · Eugene Daule
- · C.H. Griggs
- · George Anderson
- · David Hegwood
Themes & tags
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