African American Education in Gonzales

Duane's take

Here's my telling of what the official marker has to say about African American Education in Gonzales. Now, every good story has to start somewhere, and this one starts quiet. No grand building, no bell tower, no rows of desks.

Just a home. In the 1870s, in Gonzales, Texas, the education of African American citizens began at the home of a woman named Myrtle Moses Mathis. Think about what that means for a moment.

Someone opened her door and said, come in, sit down, and learn. That is where it started. But a story like this doesn't stay small.

By the 1890s, the school had grown enough to move into a two-story community building. More formalized instruction, the marker says. More students, more possibility.

Then came a moment that tends to mark a community's confidence in its own future. Around 1914, a brick schoolhouse went up. Brick.

Not a borrowed room, not a borrowed building. Something built to last. And the land it rose on was donated, given freely, by two people named W.M.

Fly and Josephine K. Peck. That school had roots before it ever had walls.

In 1922, it received a name: George Edwards High School. And the school grew into that name. By 1940, George Edwards High School was serving three hundred students and eight teachers.

Three hundred young people in Gonzales walking through those doors. But here is where the story turns, and you feel it coming. In 1964, George Edwards High School was closed, as schools in Gonzales were desegregated in compliance with the federal Civil Rights Act.

Then, in the 1970s, the school was sold. From a woman's home in the 1870s to a brick schoolhouse that held three hundred students. That is the arc.

And the marker in Gonzales makes sure nobody drives past without knowing it.

What the marker says

Education for American Negro citizens of Gonzales began in the 1870s at the home of Myrtle Moses Mathis. More formalized instruction took place in the 1890s when the school occupied a 2-story community building. A brick schoolhouse was erected about 1914 on land donated by W.M. Fly and Josephine K. Peck. It was named George Edwards High School in 1922 and served 300 students and 8 teachers by 1940. Edwards High School was closed in 1964 as schools were desegregated in compliance with the federal Civil Rights Act. The school was sold in the 1970s. (1997)