N. A. Banks Elementary School
Palestine, Anderson County, Texas
Marker Inscription
Established in 1912, N.A. Banks Elementary School served African-American children of Palestine's South End Community. Initially the school served grades one through four and was named for the principle of Palestine's Lincoln High School. Nathaniel A. Banks (1854-1930) had great influence on the African-American community of Palestine, serving as Lincoln High School principal from 1898 to 1907. He also organized the area's Colored Summer Normal School, which prepared African-American teachers in ten surrounding counties for the State Teaching Certification Exam. Hundreds attended each summer from 1899 until about 1919, even after Banks left Palestine and the teaching profession to become a farmer. The Banks School was a two-story brick building with four classrooms. When it opened, it was the first elementary school for African-American students living south of the I&GN railroad tracks in Palestine. J.A.B. Strain was the first principal. He and teachers Alma Johnson-Stein, Leonora Howard-Robinson and Louise Scott-Updack each taught here for more than 35 years. The school added fifth and sixth grades and additional teachers in 1949, though in 1953 these grades moved to the Lincoln High School campus when the new A.M. Story High School opened. Twice a year, the school hosted meetings of the City Teachers' Association, an organization of African-American teachers. In May 1965, the Palestine School Board closed Banks School in accordance with desegregation guidelines. The facility operated as the Palestine Kindergarten Center under the federally-funded Headstart Program for an additional five years. The building was razed in the early 1980s. Today Banks School is remembered as the educational foundation for many in Palestine and a source of community pride.
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
Established in 1912, Banks Elementary was the first school for African-American children living south of the I&GN tracks in Palestine's South End. It honored Nathaniel A. Banks, the Lincoln High principal who ran a summer 'normal school' that trained Black teachers from ten surrounding counties for state certification. Several of its teachers stayed more than 35 years each, and after desegregation closed the school in 1965 the building served five more years as a federal Head Start center.
Why it matters
Banks School shows how a single dedicated educator's influence rippled outward — training the teachers who staffed a whole region's segregated schools — and how such community anchors were repurposed even as segregation ended.
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Related people
- · Nathaniel A. Banks
- · J.A.B. Strain
Related events
- · Closure under desegregation guidelines, 1965
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
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