Longview Womack High School
Longview, Gregg County, Texas
Marker Inscription
BUILT IN 1930 ON GUM STREET, LONGVIEW NEGRO HIGH SCHOOL SERVED AS A SECONDARY SCHOOL FOR AFRICAN-AMERICANS. IN 1946, IT WAS DESTROYED BY FIRE, AND A NEW 16-ROOM SCHOOL WAS BUILT AT BOYD AND LUCKETT STREETS. THE SCHOOL’S NAME CHANGED CA. 1959-1960 TO HONOR AN OUTSTANDING TEACHER, MRS. MARY C. WOMACK. LESLIE J. WHITE AND J. L. EVERHART SERVED AS THE SCHOOL’S DEDICATED PRINCIPALS AND WERE BOTH RECOGNIZED BY THE EAST TEXAS BLACK EDUCATORS HALL OF FAME. WHEN A FEDERAL DESEGREGATION ORDER WAS ISSUED, THE SCHOOL WAS CLOSED AND LATER TORN DOWN. DESPITE THE CHALLENGING TIMES, LONGVIEW/WOMACK HIGH SCHOOL EDUCATED AND DEVELOPED ITS AFRICAN-AMERICAN STUDENTS INTO VALUABLE CONTRIBUTORS TO SOCIETY.
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
Opened in 1930 on Gum Street as the Longview Negro High School, this campus gave African American students a secondary education in the era of legal segregation. Rebuilt after a 1946 fire and later renamed for beloved teacher Mary C. Womack, it produced graduates guided by principals honored in the East Texas Black Educators Hall of Fame. A federal desegregation order finally closed and razed the school.
Why it matters
Womack High stands for the segregated Black schools that, despite chronic underfunding, cultivated generations of leaders—and for the bittersweet cost of integration that closed those beloved institutions.
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Related people
- · Mary C. Womack
- · Leslie J. White
- · J. L. Everhart
Themes & tags
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