Daule School

Duane's take

Here's my telling of the story as the official marker records it, out on the road in DeWitt County. Now settle in, because this one earns every mile. Back in 1892, something quiet and consequential took root in Cuero, Texas.

A one-room wooden structure went up on lot fourteen of the Morgantown addition to the city, and just like that, Cuero had its first African American school. They called it Cuero Colored High School. Before the eighteen-nineties, schools for black children existed, but only out in the rural communities.

What changed things was a tax bond, passed to allow the first public school for black children to be built inside the city. That's the kind of civic moment that looks small on paper and looms large in history. The first teacher to walk through that door was C.H.

Griggs, thirty-two years old, a graduate of the Southern University of Baton Rouge. Picture that. A young man, freshly educated, stepping into a one-room wooden building and deciding it was enough to start with.

But the man the school would eventually be named for was Eugene Daule. He became principal, and for the next forty years he played an important role in black education progress in DeWitt County. Forty years.

He held extra literary programs for students. He used whatever materials the school had available, and he used them as best he could, though the marker doesn't shy away from the truth: it was obvious the schools were not equal in funding and supplies. That inequality wasn't a secret Daule could fix alone, but he worked within it, and around it, for four decades.

In 1937, the school's name was changed to Daule High School, a recognition long in the comin. Then in 1948, a new building went up, constructed of hollow tile and concrete, painted white, built using the latest school building design of the day. The year before that new building opened, in 1947, Principal George Anderson introduced a music program.

Under the leadership of David Hegwood, that band didn't just participate in state competitions. It excelled. Division I ratings, more than once.

The school also excelled in academics, agriculture, sports, homemaking, and choir. A full life, inside those walls. Then came 1965, and Cuero public schools integrated, and Daule High School closed.

The marker puts it plainly: Daule High School and Cuero Colored High School remind us of the struggles of the black community and their resolution in the face of adversity. One room. Lot fourteen.

Forty years of one man's work. A band that earned its ratings. A community that built something real out of what they were given, and kept building.

That's the story the marker tells, and it's worth every word.

What the marker says

Cuero Colored High School was founded in 1892 as the first African American school in Cuero. The building was a one-room wooden structure built on lot fourteen of the Morgantown addition to the city. Prior to the 1890s, schools for black children were available in the rural communities. A tax bond was passed to allow the first public school for black children to be built. Most of the pupils came from farm families and could only attend school when they were not working. The first teacher was C.H. Griggs, a 32-year-old graduate from the Southern University of Baton Rouge. The principal of the school was Eugene Daule, who played an important role in black education progress in Dewitt County for the next 40 years. He held extra literary programs for students and used the materials available to the school as best he could, though it was obvious that the schools were not equal in funding and supplies. In 1937, the name of Cuero Colored High school was changed to Daule High School. A new school building was constructed in 1948 using the latest school building design, built of hollow tile and concrete and painted white. In 1947, Principal George Anderson introduced a music program. Under the leadership of David Hegwood, the band excelled and received many Division I ratings at state competitions. The school also excelled in academics, agriculture, sports, homemaking and choir. The school closed in 1965 when Cuero public schools integrated. Daule High School and Cuero Colored High School remind us of the struggles of the black community and their resolution in the face of adversity. (2014)