Ector High School
Odessa, Ector County, Texas
Marker Inscription
With the discovery of oil in Ector County in 1926, the area saw a continuous influx of people to work in the oil fields. As the general population grew so did student enrollment in area schools. As a result, on March 10, 1955, the Ector County Independent School District (ECISD) school board approved plans for a new high school to be built on a twenty-acre tract of land in the 800 block of West Clements Avenue on the south side of Odessa. The final plans called for a 164,052-square-foot building with thirty-two classrooms, an auditorium, band hall, gymnasium, library, cafeteria and workshops. Named after General Mathew Ector, a Civil War veteran and Texas legislator, the new high school opened in the fall of 1957. Prior to the school's opening, ECISD established a student committee to select a mascot and school colors. Students selected the Eagles and Columbia blue and white respectively and Ector High School officiall opened September 3, with an enrollment of 306 students. Being considered a 'minority school,' Ector's students were predominately Hispanic and African American. Beginning in 1974, the community of South Odessa began exerting pressure on the school district to fully desegregate. In 1981, the Mexican American Legal Defense and Education Fund (MALDEF) filed a civil action to force ECISD to completely desegregate their schools. Instead of desegregating, Ector closed as a high school and became a junior high school while the current secondary students were sent to the other two area high schools. Ector High School's existence saw many successful athletic accomplishments including two state titles in basketball and one in track, produced many distinguished alumni and created multiple community leaders and social activitists. (2017)
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
The 1926 oil strike in Ector County flooded Odessa with workers and their children, and by the mid-1950s the school district needed a new high school on the city's south side. Opened in 1957 and named for Confederate general and Texas legislator Mathew Ector, the school served a student body that was predominantly Hispanic and African American. Its history became entangled in the long fight over desegregation, and rather than fully integrate, the district closed it as a high school after MALDEF's 1981 legal action.
Why it matters
Ector High's rise and fall captures how the civil-rights struggle over school desegregation played out in the oil towns of West Texas, where 'minority schools' bore the brunt of resistance to integration.
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Related people
- · Mathew Ector
Related events
- · School desegregation
- · MALDEF civil action (1981)
Themes & tags
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