I. M. Terrell High School
Fort Worth, Tarrant County, Texas
Marker Inscription
In 1882, the Fort Worth school system opened its first free public school for black students, called "East Ninth Street Colored School." It was moved to the corner of East Twelfth Street and Steadman in a property trade with the Fort Worth and Denver Railroad in 1906, and renamed "North Side Colored School No. 11." Isaiah Milligan Terrell was named principal and served until 1915. A 1909 bond election provided funds for a new building, which opened in May 1910. In honor of its former principal, the school was named "I.M. Terrell High School" in 1921. The school at twelfth and Steadman became a Junior High and Elementary in 1938, when Terrell High School was moved to its present location at 1411 E. 18th Street, site of a former white elementary school. Isaiah Milligan Terrell was born in Grimes County in 1859. Named one of the first four black teachers in Fort Worth in 1882, he served as principal and supervisor of black schools. He was married in 1883 to Marcelite Landry, a respected music teacher. Terrell became President of Prairie View State Normal and Industrial College (now Prairie View A&M University) in 1915, and later became an active leader in Houston's black community. He died in 1931.
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
When Fort Worth opened its first free public school for Black children in 1882, it began a decades-long institution that would grow far beyond its humble East Ninth Street start. Isaiah Milligan Terrell, one of the city's first Black teachers, shaped the school as principal until 1915, when he left to lead what is now Prairie View A&M University. In 1921 the school was named in his honor, and it moved to its long-standing 18th Street home in 1938. It remained the anchor of Black education in Fort Worth through the segregation era.
Why it matters
The school embodies the resilience of Black communities building their own educational institutions under Jim Crow, and honors an educator whose influence reached from Fort Worth's classrooms to a major state university.
The story behind this marker
AI contextThe era
In 1882, Fort Worth was a booming cattle-and-railroad town. Its population was growing fast, and its Black community was growing with it. Texas had been readmitted to the Union after the Civil War, and formerly enslaved people and their children were hungry for the education slavery had denied them. Schools were one of the first things Black communities across the South fought to build.
But the era's schools were segregated by law and custom, and Black schools almost always got less funding, older buildings, and fewer resources than white ones. Under those constraints, Black teachers and principals often carried the weight of whole communities, building institutions that offered not just lessons but pride, leadership, and hope.
The school's history runs from the 1880s through the Jim Crow decades of the early twentieth century, one of the hardest periods for Black Americans in the South. Its story of moves, new buildings, and a new name reflects a community that kept pushing for better facilities under a system designed to hold it back.
People & events
The school began in 1882 as the East Ninth Street Colored School, Fort Worth's first free public school for Black students. In 1906 a property trade with the Fort Worth and Denver Railroad moved it to East Twelfth Street and Steadman, where it was renamed North Side Colored School No. 11. A 1909 bond election paid for a new building, which opened in May 1910.
At its center was Isaiah Milligan Terrell. Born in Grimes County in 1859, he was one of Fort Worth's first four Black teachers in 1882. He became principal and supervisor of the city's Black schools and led the school until 1915. In 1883 he married Marcelite Landry, a respected music teacher, and together they were part of the educated leadership of Black Fort Worth.
In 1915 Terrell left to become president of Prairie View State Normal and Industrial College, now Prairie View A&M University. It was one of the most important institutions of Black higher education in Texas. He later became a leader in Houston's Black community and died in 1931. Fort Worth honored him in 1921, giving the school his name. In 1938 I.M. Terrell High School moved to 1411 East 18th Street, the site of a former white elementary school, while the old Twelfth Street building continued as a junior high and elementary school.
Its place in the American story
I.M. Terrell High School is part of a nationwide story: Black communities building strong schools under segregation. Across the South, schools like this one became anchors of community life, places where teachers held students to high standards and passed on a sense of possibility the wider society often tried to deny them.
Terrell's own career shows how those institutions connected. A teacher in Fort Worth became a principal and supervisor, then president of a state college that trained generations of Black teachers. Leadership in one place multiplied across Texas.
The school's story also leads into the civil rights era. The segregated school system it was part of was eventually challenged by the movement that produced the U.S. Supreme Court's 1954 Brown v. Board of Education decision. Schools like Terrell's are a reminder that before integration, Black communities had already built institutions of real excellence, often against long odds.
If you visit
The marker sits on Fort Worth's east side, in the neighborhoods the school served for generations. As you read it, think about the full journey it describes, from a single schoolhouse on East Ninth Street to a high school bearing the name of one of the city's first Black teachers.
Try to picture the people behind the dates: students walking to class, teachers working with hand-me-down resources, and a principal who went on to lead a college. Marcelite Landry Terrell's place on the marker is a reminder that music and the arts were part of this community's educational life too.
Pair this stop with Fort Worth's better-known attractions, like the Stockyards and the downtown cultural district, for a fuller picture of the city. The cattle and the cowboys are only part of Fort Worth's history. This marker tells the story of a community that built its own future, one classroom at a time.
Written by AI to add context, grounded in the marker’s inscription and the historical record. The inscription above is the original, unaltered text.
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Related people
- · Isaiah Milligan Terrell
- · Marcelite Landry Terrell
Themes & tags
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