DUANE
Duane's take
Here's my telling of what the official marker has to say about Black Education in Bryan, Brazos County, Texas. Now, on March 30, 1885, the City of Bryan went out and purchased seven lots right here in this area. The purpose was plain and deliberate: to build a public school providing separate but equal and impartial instruction for black children of the community — that's the language the Texas State Constitution of 1876 demanded, and Bryan meant to follow it.
What rose from those seven lots was the Bryan Public School for Colored, the very first educational institution established for black students in all of Brazos County. First. In the whole county.
When the doors opened that fall of 1885, the man standing at the front of it all was A.H. Colwell. Now you want to talk about a man who was going places — Colwell went on to become a prominent leader of black Republicans, and in 1896 he was named a presidential elector from Texas.
That is not a small thing. But on day one, there he was, principal of a brand-new school on seven purchased lots. And the faculty he had around him — let me tell you about these women, because they deserve to be named.
Mrs. Anne Alberson. Misses Mamie Burrows and Beatrice Calhoun.
Mrs. Ada Scott Hall. And Mrs.
Lenora Green, who happened to be a classmate of Dr. William E.B. Du Bois.
A classmate of Du Bois, teaching children in Bryan, Texas. The marker wants you to know that, and so do I. Now, the building itself — you have to picture this.
A two-story frame structure. Sounded grand enough, maybe. But inside, the seating was planks laid across kegs.
Planks. Across kegs. That is what they had, and they made it work, year after year, until 1914, when the school burned.
After the fire, they didn't walk away from it. A brick edifice was constructed on the same site. Brick.
Then in 1930, when the Kemp Junior-Senior High School was built across town, this facility took on a new identity — Washington Elementary School. It carried that name and served those students for decades more. Then September of 1971 brought fire again.
Washington Elementary burned. And this time, it was not rebuilt. After that second fire, the black students were integrated into the Bryan Public School System.
A chapter that had opened with planks on kegs in 1885 closed in the smoke of 1971. Today, Washington Park occupies most of that original site — those same seven lots the city bought on March 30, 1885. A park where a school once stood, where planks crossed kegs, where Mrs.
Lenora Green taught children in the same era she sat beside Du Bois. The ground remembers, even when the buildings are gone.
What the marker says
On March 30, 1885, the City of Bryan purchased seven lots in this area as a site for a public school to provide separate but equal and impartial instruction for black children of the community, as prescribed by the Texas State Constitution of 1876. The "Bryan Public School for Colored" was the first educational institution established for blacks in Brazos County. When school opened in the fall of 1885, its principal was A.H. Colwell, who later became a prominent leader of black Republicans, and was named as a presidential elector from Texas in 1896. The original faculty included Mrs. Anne Alberson, Misses Mamie Burrows and Beatrice Calhoun, Mrs. Ada Scott Hall, and Mrs. Lenora Green, a classmate of Dr. William E.B. Dubois. The first school building of this site was a two-story frame structure, furnished with planks supported by kegs for seating. After the school burned in 1914, a brick edifice was constructed. In 1930, when the Kemp Junior-Senior High School was built across town, this facility became Washington Elementary School. After its destruction by fire in Sept. 1971, Washington Elementary was not rebuilt and the black students were integrated into the Bryan Public School System. Washington Park occupies most of the original site.