Fred Douglass Elementary School

Duane's take

Here's how the official marker tells it, and I'll do my best to do it justice. Way out in Hunt County, in a part of Greenville they call the East Hill Community, there's a building with a story pressed right into its foundation. Literally pressed in.

Because when they poured the concrete for the new school building in 1928, the foundation of the original Colored School Building got swallowed up into the ground beneath it. That history didn't go anywhere. It just went under, holding everything up.

Now that's a metaphor if I've ever heard one, and I didn't even have to make it up. The marker did that all on its own. In the early nineteen hundreds, this school was established as the East Colored School, one of three schools set up for Black students to attend during segregation in Greenville.

Three schools. That's what the community had, and they made something of every one of them. Then came 1928, a new building goes up, and with it comes a new name.

Fred Douglass Elementary School. Grades one through eight, serving the Black community of Greenville. Now, the building itself is a one-story light brick structure, modest by some measures, but the people who passed through it were anything but.

And that brings us to 1930, which is where this story lands hardest. That year, Mary J. Morris was named principal at Fred Douglass Elementary School.

First African American woman to hold that position in Greenville. The first. In a city that had seen decades of segregated schooling, with all the weight that carried, Mary J.

Morris stepped into that role and made it hers. The marker doesn't need to say another word after that. Neither do I.

What the marker says

This school was established in the early 1900s in the historic East Hill Community of Greenville. Known as East Colored School, it was one of three schools that were established for blacks to attend during segregation. The school was renamed Fred Douglass in 1928 when the new school building was built. This was also the site of the original Colored School Building, the foundation of which is embedded into the ground. The school taught grades 1 through 8 for the black community. In 1930, Mary J. Morris was named principal at the school, making her the first African American woman to hold that position in Greenville. The school building is a one-story light brick building. Recorded Texas Historic Landmark - 2014