Emma Henderson Wallace
Orange, Orange County, Texas
Marker Inscription
A native of Waxahachie, Texas, Emma Smiley Henderson Wallace (1876-1968) attended school at Prairie View College before becoming a teacher in 1896. She taught in Tyler, Ellis and Jefferson Counties before moving to Orange in 1901 to become one of four teachers at Orange Colored School, which was housed in the Salem Methodist and Mount Zion Missionary Baptist Churches. She joined the Orange Public School faculty in 1914. The widow of Lofty Henderson, Emma married Anderson Wallace in the 1920s. After serving first as a teacher at Moton High School, named for educator Robert Russa Moton, she was appointed Principal in 1933. Under Wallace's 13-year leadership, the campus developed with a library, basketball and tennis courts, a band, choir, drama group and student clubs. A drill corps, which supported the school's longtime Dragons football team, formed in 1946. That same year, at the request of the Moton School Parent-Teacher Association, the school was renamed Emma H. Wallace High School in her honor. Emma Wallace retired from Orange Public Schools in 1952. In addition to her role as educator, she was also an active member in Mount Zion Baptist Church, Civic Betterment League, Order of the Eastern Star and other organizations. She moved to Dallas in 1959 and died there in 1968. The community Wallace served for the better part of a century continues to honor her memory. Her legacy is remembered by the many students whose lives she affected though her dedication to educating the youth of Orange's African American community and her devotion to her pupils'success. (2004)
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
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.
Why it matters
Her life shows how Black educators built lasting institutions within the constraints of a segregated South, opening doors for generations of students.
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Related people
- · Emma Henderson Wallace
- · Robert Russa Moton
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
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.
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.
Black Education in Orange County
Orange, TX
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.
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.