Historic La Porte Colored School
La Porte, Harris County, Texas
Marker Inscription
Prior to the establishment of a public school in La Porte, African American students were educated at a local church where students attended class during the week and religious services were held in the evening and on weekends. Around 1909, a dedicated school building, the former Morgan’s Point Methodist Church, was purchased and moved to this location. The schoolhouse at that time was a one-room, wood frame building that served grades one through eight. Students wishing to continue their education after eighth grade attended George Washington Carver High School in Baytown, eight miles to the northeast. According to oral history, Viola Dewalt was the school’s teacher until her retirement in 1943. She was so integral to the school that many referred to it as “Mrs. Dewalt’s school.” In 1943, a two-room building was moved to an adjacent lot. Classes were moved into the two-room building with grades one through four in one room and grades five through eight in the other. The desks and stage remained in the smaller building for plays and musical productions by the students. Local churches were allowed to use the building for meetings and other events. In 1953, a new brick school was built on North 6th and Madison for the African American community and this campus was closed. The original one-room building was used by the La Porte chapter of the Order of the Eastern Star as a meeting hall during the 1980s and 1990s. This school, reconstructed with a new addition in 2018 using some salvaged original materials, is a tangible reminder of early African American education in La Porte.
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
Before La Porte built a public school for its Black children, they learned in a local church that doubled as classroom and sanctuary. Around 1909 a former Methodist church was moved to this site to serve as a one-room schoolhouse for grades one through eight, older students traveling eight miles to high school in Baytown. For decades it was known simply as "Mrs. Dewalt's school" after its devoted teacher Viola Dewalt, until a new brick campus opened in 1953.
Why it matters
The little school preserves the everyday reality of segregated African American education, where a single dedicated teacher and a repurposed church could carry a whole community's children.
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Related people
- · Viola Dewalt
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
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