James E. Guinn School
Fort Worth, Tarrant County, Texas
Marker Inscription
After Fort Worth public schools were organized in the fall of 1882, black students continued to be taught in black churches for more than a year. The city completed a schoolhouse for blacks on E. 9th Street at Elm in December 1883. The son of a former slave, James Elvis Guinn was born in Fort Worth. Though neither of them could read nor write, his parents placed a great value on education, and James attended Fort Worth's early schools for blacks. He later pursued a college degree and became a professor of chemistry at Prairie View College, now Prairie View A&M University. Guinn returned to Fort Worth as principal of South Side Colored School in 1900. Construction of a new three-story brick school building, designed by the prominent architectural firm of Sanguinet and Staats, began at the corner of Louisiana and Rosedale Avenues in April 1917. Shortly before its completion, Guinn died on July 11, 1917. Six days later the school board voted to name the new school building James E. Guinn School in his honor. It was the largest black school in Fort Worth in 1930. After sixty-three years of service it, it was closed in 1980. Texas Sesquicentennial 1836-1986.
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
When Fort Worth organized its public schools in 1882, Black children were first taught in churches before the city built segregated schoolhouses. James Elvis Guinn, the son of formerly enslaved parents who prized the education they never had, rose to become a chemistry professor at Prairie View before returning home to lead the South Side Colored School. The grand three-story brick school begun in 1917 was named in his honor days after his death, and it grew into the largest Black school in the city.
Why it matters
The school embodies the determination of Black Texans to build institutions of learning in the teeth of Jim Crow segregation, and it honors an educator who turned the barest beginnings into a lifetime of teaching.
The story behind this marker
AI contextThe era
Fort Worth in the 1880s was a booming cattle and railroad town, and like many growing Texas cities it was setting up a public school system. But in Texas, as across the South, public education was segregated by law. Black and white children were taught in separate schools, and the schools for Black students almost always received less money, fewer buildings, and fewer resources.
When the city organized its public schools in 1882, Black children did not immediately get a schoolhouse of their own. For more than a year they kept learning in Black churches, which had long served as schools, meeting halls, and the heart of community life for African Americans after emancipation.
The decades around 1900 were some of the harshest of the Jim Crow era. Segregation was hardening across the South, and Black Texans faced discrimination in voting, work, and public life. Against that backdrop, Black communities poured enormous energy into education, seeing schools as one of the surest paths forward.
By 1917, when construction began on the large brick school that would bear James E. Guinn's name, Fort Worth had grown into a major city. A substantial new school building for Black students, designed by a leading architectural firm, was a significant investment in a community that had started out learning in church pews.
People & events
James Elvis Guinn was born in Fort Worth, the son of a man who had been enslaved. Neither of his parents could read or write, yet they placed great value on education and made sure their son went to school. James attended Fort Worth's early schools for Black children, part of the very first generation to learn in them.
He went on to earn a college degree and became a professor of chemistry at Prairie View College, today's Prairie View A&M University. For the child of illiterate parents, rising to teach science at the college level was an extraordinary achievement, and a living answer to everyone who doubted what Black students could do.
In 1900 Guinn came home to Fort Worth to serve as principal of the South Side Colored School. He spent his career building up the education of the community that had raised him. In April 1917, work began on a new three-story brick school at Louisiana and Rosedale Avenues, designed by the prominent firm of Sanguinet and Staats.
Guinn did not live to see it finished. He died on July 11, 1917, shortly before the building was completed. Just six days later, the school board voted to name it the James E. Guinn School in his honor. By 1930 it was the largest Black school in Fort Worth, and it served students for sixty-three years before closing in 1980.
Its place in the American story
The Guinn School is a Texas chapter of one of the great American stories: the drive of formerly enslaved people and their children to gain an education. In the years after emancipation, Black families across the country built schools, often starting in churches and homes, because literacy and learning had been denied to them for generations.
Guinn's own life traces that arc in a single generation. His parents could not read; he became a college chemistry professor and then a principal. Stories like his were repeated in Black communities nationwide, and they helped create the teachers, professionals, and leaders who later carried the fight for civil rights.
The school also reflects the reality of segregated education under Jim Crow. Separate schools were the law, and Black communities made the most of them, turning schools like this one into sources of pride, achievement, and community identity even within an unjust system.
The school's long life, from 1917 until its closing in 1980, spans the whole journey from legal segregation through the Supreme Court's 1954 ruling against school segregation and the slow, contested work of desegregation that followed. Its history mirrors the nation's long struggle over who gets an equal education.
If you visit
Look for the marker near the corner of Louisiana and Rosedale Avenues on Fort Worth's south side. The building itself is the main thing to see: a substantial three-story brick school from 1917, the work of an architectural firm that shaped much of early twentieth-century Fort Worth.
As you take it in, think about the distance between this solid brick building and the church rooms where Black children in Fort Worth first went to school. That journey, in a few decades, is what the marker is really about.
The building's current use may have changed since the school closed, so check locally before planning to go inside, and be respectful of anyone working or living there.
The Guinn School fits well into a day exploring Fort Worth's history, from its cattle-town roots to its African American heritage. It is a good stop for families, too: a chance to talk with children about how hard earlier generations fought simply to be allowed to learn.
Written by AI to add context, grounded in the marker’s inscription and the historical record. The inscription above is the original, unaltered text.
Own a business near here? Add it to the map.
Related people
- · James Elvis Guinn
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Mt. Zion Baptist Church
Fort Worth, TX
On Christmas Day 1894, evangelist the Rev. Frank Tribune gathered five founding members—four of them women—to organize Mt. Zion Baptist Church, aided by the prominent Black Baptist leader the Rev. Dr. A. R. Griggs. The congregation worshipped in a 1907 frame building, then a tabernacle, before raising this brick sanctuary beginning in 1919 and adding an education building in the mid-20th century.
St. Andrews United Methodist Church of Fort Worth
Fort Worth, TX
Fifteen men and women organized St. Andrews in 1888, growing a Fort Worth congregation that repeatedly lent its buildings for public schooling — including classes for an early Black public school. In 1950 the church acquired the 1904 James E. Flanders-designed Missouri Avenue building, and longtime pastor the Rev. Leonard L. Haynes became the first African American on the Tarrant County Junior College board as it integrated in the 1960s.
I. M. Terrell High School
Fort Worth, TX
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.
Baker Funeral Home
Fort Worth, TX
After working as a Pullman porter for the Santa Fe Railroad, James Nathan Baker, Sr. opened a funeral home for Cleburne's African American community in 1917 and became a licensed embalmer in 1922. Moving to Fort Worth in 1926, he built the Baker Undertaking Company into a regional enterprise that added a community ambulance service, a burial association, and a cemetery, serving Black families across the area. Passed down through four generations, the business remains a landmark tied to Fort Worth's historic Black churches, leaders, and neighborhoods.