Langston School
Del Rio, Val Verde County, Texas
Marker Inscription
San Felipe ISD operated a school for African American students for a short time in the 1930s and again from 1945-56. Langston School on De la Rosa street was named for Langston Hughes, notable writer of the Harlem Renaissance. San Felipe ISD bought the property in 1934 and built a two-room schoolhouse, consisting of one classroom and a smaller storeroom. Sparse records indicate no principal for Langston and one teacher at a time, who taught up to thirty students in grades one to eight. Those wishing to attend high school went to Del Rio’s Tarver School or as far as San Antonio or Houston. Langston school did have a parent-teacher association (PTA). As the school district integrated, Langston closed in 1957. (2013)
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
San Felipe ISD opened this two-room schoolhouse for African American students in the 1930s and ran it again from 1945 to 1956, naming it for Harlem Renaissance writer Langston Hughes. A single teacher taught as many as thirty children across grades one through eight, while those seeking high school had to travel to Del Rio or as far as San Antonio or Houston. As the district integrated, Langston School closed in 1957.
Why it matters
Langston School stands as evidence of the segregated 'separate but unequal' education imposed on Black children in Texas and of the communities that valued learning enough to sustain it despite scarce resources.
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Related people
- · Langston Hughes
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Tarver School
Del Rio, TX
Del Rio organized a school for African American students as early as 1901, and in 1929–30 the district built a one-room stucco schoolhouse on Ware Street. Chronically underfunded, it made do with books and equipment discarded from white schools, teaching a handful of students per grade under a tiny faculty. Later renamed for principal W. H. Tarver, the school closed in 1957 as segregation ended.
Nicolas Street School
Uvalde, TX
Built in 1938, the Nicolas Street School is the last surviving school telling the story of African American education in Uvalde. Its creation owed much to teacher Susie Harris, who — after the school board reneged on promised new facilities for Black students — wrote directly to Uvalde resident and U.S. Vice President John Nance Garner for help, and won a new campus. In an era of "separate but seldom equal" schooling, two teachers taught eight grades here, and the school served the community until 1965, a full decade after the district voted to integrate.
Doyle Colored School
Kerrville, TX
The Doyle School opened in 1909 when Kerrville's small African American community pooled $53 to move a discarded frame schoolhouse onto land donated by teacher Anna W. Doyle. Under revered principal B.T. "Prof" Wilson—who named the school for Doyle—it grew from a one-room building with no utilities into a campus with an auditorium, band, choir, and athletic teams. When Kerrville integrated in 1964, its Black students moved into the town's schools, and the building endures today as a community center.
Santos S. Garza
Del Rio, TX
Known as 'Don Santos' and the 'Father of San Felipe Schools,' Santos S. Garza came to Del Rio in 1898 and built a string of businesses—a theater, general store, dairy, pharmacy, ranch, and bar. His lasting legacy was civic: in 1928 he blocked the annexation of the San Felipe area by the Del Rio school district, keeping his largely Mexican-American community in control of its own schools, and he led the movement that created the San Felipe I.S.D. in 1929.