Alice O. Wilkins School

Duane's take

Here's how the official marker tells it, and I'll do my best to do it justice. In Port Lavaca, down in Calhoun County, early education for African American students reaches back to the late nineteenth century, when a man named James Choice ran a one-room school. After him came the Reverend A.K.

Black, a Baptist pastor, who led that same school covering grades one through five, sitting at the corner of Ann and Mulberry streets. A modest place, by any measure. But here's where the story turns.

In 1907, a young woman named Alice Ora Crawford arrived. She had come from Chicago. She was a graduate of Fisk University.

And she was only sixteen years old. Sixteen, and she stepped in front of a classroom and got to work. Under her leadership, that school grew from its original grades all the way up to ten.

She moved from teacher to principal, and her style, positive but stern, the marker is careful to say both things, made her an educator who genuinely shaped the lives of Port Lavaca's African American students. The work started in that one-room schoolhouse, then followed the space wherever space could be found, until 1923, when a Rosenwald School was built and gave the work a proper home. Her personal life carried its own weight.

After the death of her first husband, Horace Miller, Alice married Dr. John H. Wilkins, who died in 1917.

She kept on. She stayed, and she worked, and in 1937 the Calhoun district school board named the African American High School, the one then known as Rosenwald, in her honor. That is a quiet kind of recognition, the kind that means a community decided a person's name ought to be on the building their effort built.

Then comes the part of this story that stops you cold. In April of 1942, Alice O. Wilkins was at her school, decorating it for a prom.

And there, in that act of care for her students, she suffered a cerebral hemorrhage. She died the following day in Victoria. She is buried there, in Evergreen Cemetery.

The school she gave her name to continued operating, in part, until full integration of the public school system in 1965. But the marker says something worth sitting with at the end. The memory of the school honors its namesake leader, a revered educator who unselfishly served the people of Port Lavaca for more than thirty-five years.

Thirty-five years that started when a sixteen-year-old stepped off a train from Chicago and into a one-room schoolhouse. That's a life that earned its marker.

What the marker says

Alice O. Wilkins School Early education for African American students in Port Lavaca dates from the late nineteenth century and a one-room school run by James Choice. The Rev. A.K. Black, a Baptist pastor, later led the school, which included grades 1 to 5 and was located at Ann and Mulberry streets. In 1907, Alice Ora Crawford, a graduate of Fisk University, came here from Chicago and, although only 16 years old, became the schoolteacher. Under her leadership, the school grew to ten grades, and she eventually became principal. Her positive, yet stern, leadership made her an effective educator, and she provided significant direction for the city's African American students. Her work began in the one-room schoolhouse but moved to other facilities as they became available, including a Rosenwald School built in 1923. Following the death of her first husband, Horace Miller, Alice wed Dr. John H. Wilkins (d. 1917). She continued with her local work in education and, in 1937, the Calhoun district school board named the African American High School, then known as Rosenwald, in her honor. In April 1942, while decorating her school for a prom, Alice O. Wilkins suffered a cerebral hemorrhage and died the following day in Victoria. She is buried there in Evergreen Cemetery. Alice O. Wilkins School continued in operation, in part, until full integration of the public school system occurred in 1965. The memory of the school, however, honors its namesake leader, a revered educator who unselfishly served the people of Port Lavaca for more than 35 years. Its history is an important reminder of the many students she guided and influenced. (2003)