Lott Canada School
Beeville, Bee County, Texas
Marker Inscription
With few formal schools available, education for many African Americans in the 19th century came through church instruction. In 1876, the first African American school in Bee County began in Stephen Canada's store seven miles north of Beeville. The following year, Stephen Kennedy built a small frame schoolhouse. County commissioners granted Canada and Kennedy's petition to create "Colored Community School Twelve." Beeville provided separate schools for Caucasian, African American and Mexican American students. In 1908, Beeville school trustees bought land for a new African American school from R.H. and Clara Berry. In the frame schoolhouse completed on North Burke Street, prinicipal J.R. Lockett introduced courses in agriculture and science and matched the studies of other Beeville schools. A 1929 fire destroyed the building, and students were taught in temporary quarters near the Bethlehem Missionary Baptist Church. Construction on a new school began in 1931. Financial assistance from the Julius Rosenwald fund of Chicago helped complete a brick schoolhouse with four classrooms and an auditorium. The school was named to honor Mose Lott and Allen Canada, carpenters who built the previous school which burned. The school offered ten grades, with additional years added through the 1940s. Gradual integration of Beeville schools began in 1955, with Lott Canada students attending A.C. Jones High School and the elementary school. In 1964, the Lott Canada School closed, though the school district continued to use the campus for other functions. The Lott Canada Alumni Association organized to preserve the heritage of African American education in Beeville. (2008)
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
Black education in Bee County began in 1876 in Stephen Canada's store, then a small frame schoolhouse, chartered by the county as "Colored Community School Twelve." A larger frame school followed on North Burke Street, where principal J.R. Lockett matched the offerings of the town's white schools until fire destroyed it in 1929. With help from the Chicago-based Julius Rosenwald Fund, a brick school with four classrooms and an auditorium opened in 1931, named for carpenters Mose Lott and Allen Canada — serving until integration closed it in 1964.
Why it matters
Backed by the Rosenwald building program, the school stands for the nationwide effort of Black communities and reformers to secure real education against the odds of the Jim Crow South.
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Related people
- · Mose Lott
- · Allen Canada
- · J.R. Lockett
- · Stephen Canada
Themes & tags
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