DUANE
Duane's take
Here's how the official marker tells it, and I'll do my best to do it justice. Somewhere in Palestine, Texas, in the part of town folks called Old Town, there's a story that stretches nearly a hundred years — and it starts, like so many good Texas stories do, with a school board making a decision that would outlast everyone in that room. The year was 1875.
The Palestine school board established what they called the First Ward School for Coloreds. A man named James M. McMeans stepped in as the first principal, and two teachers — Jurlee Sims-Lee and Alex Vincent — stood up in front of those first classrooms and got to work.
Now, we don't know exactly what that original schoolhouse looked like, but by 1889, the school board decided it was time for something better. They put up a two-thousand-dollar frame building on the same site. Two thousand dollars.
That was real money in 1889, and that building was a statement. Then came 1898, and with it, a new name. The Palestine school board renamed the school Frederick Douglass Elementary School, following the death of the prominent civil rights leader.
The name alone told you something about what this place was meant to be. But here's where the story gets that particular Texas flavor of hard luck and harder resolve. In 1912, fire destroyed the Douglass School.
Just — gone. And the children of Old Town didn't stop learning. Classes moved temporarily to Mt.
Vernon Methodist Church, and they kept right on until a new brick schoolhouse rose up on that same original site. Brick, this time. Like they were saying: try that again.
Inside those walls, first through sixth grade filled the halls. Every Friday, the whole school gathered for general assemblies — students presenting programs of singing, storytelling, poetry reading, and spelling bees. Twice a year, the school hosted meetings of the City Teachers' Association, an organization of African-American teachers coming together to do the serious work of their profession.
And every October, each class put together a Douglass School display for the Anderson County Fair. Now, if you want a through-line that gives you chills, consider the Freeman family. Three generations of them served as Douglass School principals.
William Freeman led the school from 1901 to 1909. Then Byron Freeman took the reins — 1927 to 1942, and again from 1945 to 1957. And when Byron stepped down, Jack Freeman carried it forward from 1957 all the way to 1967.
Three generations of one family, handing this school down like something sacred. Then May of 1967 arrived. The school board announced that Douglass School would be closed permanently at the end of that school year.
Teachers and students were reassigned to other schools in the district. The building that had survived fire and decades and the weight of a community's hopes got repurposed for small businesses, and then, sometime in the 1980s, it was torn down. Gone from the ground, but not from the record.
Because here's the thing the marker wants you to know: Douglass School holds the distinction of being the only public school ever built in the old town neighborhood of Palestine. For generations, it wasn't just a school — it was the educational, social, and community center of that corner of the world. Nearly a century of Friday assemblies, spelling bees, October fair displays, and Freeman family principals.
That's not just a school. That's a people's institution. And now you know it too.
What the marker says
For nearly a century, this site served African-American school children of Palestine’s Old Town community. The school board established the “First Ward School for Coloreds” in 1875. James M. McMeans was the first principal, and Jurlee Sims-Lee and Alex Vincent were the first teachers. In 1889, a $2,000 frame building replaced the original schoolhouse. The Palestine school board changed the school’s name to Frederick Douglass Elementary School in 1898, following the death of the prominent civil rights leader. A 1912 fire destroyed the Douglass School, and classes were held temporarily at Mt. Vernon Methodist Church until a new brick schoolhouse was completed on the original site. The Douglass School housed first through sixth grade. Twice a year, the school hosted meetings of the City Teachers’ Association, an organization of African-American teachers. General assemblies were held each Friday, with students presenting programs in the form of singing, storytelling, poetry reading and spelling bees. Each class contributed to the Douglass School display for the Anderson County Fair each October. Three generations of the Freeman family served as Douglass School principals: William (1901-09), Byron (1927-42, 1945-57) and Jack (1957-67). In May 1967, the school board announced that Douglass School would be closed permanently at the end of the school year. Teachers and students were reassigned to other schools in the district. The school building was then used for a variety of small businesses before being torn down in the 1980s. Douglass School has the distinction of being the only public school built in the old town neighborhood. For generations in Palestine, it operated as an educational, social and community center. (2009)