East Side Elementary School

Duane's take

Here's my telling of what the official marker has to say about East Side Elementary School in Wise County. Now settle in, because this one deserves to be told right. In the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, Wise County and several of the counties around it had very few African American citizens.

But the regulations of the time didn't much care about numbers, they required separate facilities for African Americans all the same. Most African American families in Decatur lived in a neighborhood east of the Fort Worth and Denver Railway tracks. And it was there, in 1882, that they established East Side Elementary School, the only school for African American students in all of Wise County.

The only one. In the whole county. Let that sit with you for a moment.

One school, for every Black child in Wise County, built near the residence of a Mrs. Missouri Brown. That original building was a one-room frame structure, and at first it pulled double duty, schoolhouse by day, church as well, because necessity has always had a way of getting the most out of a building.

There was a pot-bellied stove inside, and the boys gathered wood for it from a nearby creek. A water well served the school for decades until the 1930s, when it was discovered to be contaminated with oil and had to be abandoned. And the furnishings, the textbooks, the desks, East Side Elementary School often inherited the discarded ones from Decatur's white schools.

Cast-offs and hand-me-downs, and still those children showed up and learned. Now, if a student at East Side managed to complete eighth grade, and good for them when they did, their education didn't just continue down the road. They had to travel to Fort Worth's I.M.

Terrell High School, forty-five miles away, or to Fred Moore High School over in Denton, thirty miles distant. Thirty to forty-five miles, in an era when that was no small thing, just to keep learning. In 1954, a new two-classroom brick building replaced the old frame structure.

That original one-room building got repurposed as a band hall over at Decatur High School, and later still, it served as a barn, before eventually being moved back to its historic neighborhood. East Side Elementary School kept its doors open until 1965, when segregation ended and all students attended the same schools. Here's the part that gives me pause.

The marker notes that little documentation exists for Decatur's African American community. The stories of East Side Elementary School, the pot-bellied stove, the creek wood, the long rides to Fort Worth and Denton, these stories are what remain. Reminders, the marker calls them, of the struggles and triumphs of a different time in our nation's past.

One room. One school. One county's worth of children who deserved better and made something remarkable out of what they had.

What the marker says

In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, Wise and several surrounding counties had few African American citizens. Yet regulations at the time required separate facilities for African Americans. Most African American families in Decatur lived in a neighborhood east of the Fort Worth and Denver Railway tracks. In 1882, they established East Side Elementary School, which was the only school for African American students in Wise County. The original building was a one-room frame structure built near the residence of a Mrs. Missouri Brown. Initially the facility also served as a church. It had a pot-bellied stove that the boys gathered wood for from the nearby creek. A water well was abandoned in the 1930s when it was discovered to be contaminated with oil. East Side Elementary School often inherited discarded furnishings and textbooks from Decatur's white schools. Students who completed eighth grade had to travel to Fort Worth's I.M. Terrell High School (45 miles) or Denton's Fred Moore High School (30 miles) to continue their education. In 1954, the school was replaced by a two-classroom brick building and the old frame building was used as a band hall at Decatur High School. Later, the former school served as a barn and then was moved back to its historic neighborhood. East Side Elementary School operated until segregation ended in 1965 and all students attended the same schools. Little documentation exists for Decatur's African American community. The stories of East Side Elementary School serve as reminders of the struggles and triumphs of a different time in our nation's past. (2013)