George Washington Carver High School
Houston, Harris County, Texas
Marker Inscription
In 1915, Harris County Common School District #26 established White Oak (Colored) School to serve the Acres Homes Community. The Wright Land Company, which developed this historically African-American community earlier in the decade, deeded land at West Montgomery and Willow Streets for a new one-room school. By the 1930s, as attendance grew, the school taught seven grades, with grades one through three meeting for a time at Greater Zion Baptist Church. In 1937, the school became part of the Aldine School District and house seven teachers and more than 300 pupils. The school moved to Wheatley Road in 1941 and continued to grow under Archie Baldwin Anderson, who served as principal from 1941 to 1957. Under his direction, the school changed its name to George Washington Carver School, received accreditation, and separated into an elementary and high school. In the 1950s, a large number of African Americans migrated into Acres Homes, leading to construction of a new high school building at this location in 1954. The former campus was renamed Carver Elementary and later dedicated as A.B. Anderson Elementary. In 1978, Carver H.S. became Aldine Contemporary Education Center, implementing an innovative program to attract students who were not African American to the campus. The curriculum consisted of flexible hours and voluntary enrollment for students who worked or had special interests. In 1994, the school changed names again before becoming a magnet school. Many graduates have achieved personal and professional success, and today, George Washington Carver High School for Applied Technology, Engineering and the Arts continues to be a notable institution of learning in the community. (2007)
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
In the segregated Jim Crow South, the African American neighborhood of Acres Homes built its own schoolhouse in 1915, beginning as the one-room White Oak (Colored) School. Over the following decades it grew alongside a wave of Black migration into the community, gaining accreditation and a high school under longtime principal A.B. Anderson and taking the name of scientist George Washington Carver. From a single crowded room it evolved into today's magnet campus for applied technology, engineering, and the arts.
Why it matters
The school's century-long arc — from a segregated colored school to an accredited institution and finally a magnet campus — traces the broader African American struggle for educational opportunity in twentieth-century America.
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Related people
- · Archie Baldwin Anderson
- · George Washington Carver
Related events
- · Great Migration into Acres Homes
- · School desegregation
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
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