Pine Grove School

Duane's take

Here's my telling of what the official marker says about Pine Grove School in Cherokee County. Now settle in, because this story starts quiet, out in rural East Texas, and it builds. The earliest county school records show Pine Grove School was already in operation by at least 1885, serving African American students in this part of Cherokee County.

One teacher. All grades. One community schoolhouse.

You picture that, one person holding the whole thing together, every age of child in the same room, and you start to understand what kind of commitment it took just to keep the doors open. Then came the years, and the students kept coming. After World War I, a growing student population led authorities to do something about it.

They applied to the Julius Rosenwald Fund, and they secured funding to help build a new schoolhouse. That is not a small thing. That is a community fighting for its children through every channel available to them.

The new schoolhouse was completed in 1926, built for two teachers this time. But even that wasn't enough for long. By 1935 and into 1936, they enlarged the school again, making room for two more teachers.

Four teachers now, from that one quiet room in 1885. Pine Grove went on to produce a number of students who built very successful careers, which tells you everything about what was happening inside those walls despite everything that was happening outside them. The school operated as a segregated institution, as the law demanded, until 1968, when it closed and merged with the New Hope school district.

Eighty-three years of teaching, of stretching, of growing, of refusing to quit. Pine Grove didn't just survive. It graduated people.

What the marker says

Earliest county school records indicate that the Pine Grove School was in operation by at least 1885, serving African American students in this part of rural Cherokee County. One teacher taught all grades in a community schoolhouse. After World War I, a growing student population led authorities to apply to the Julius Rosenwald Fund, from which they secured funding to help build a new schoolhouse. Completed in 1926, the two-teacher type school was enlarged in 1935-36 to make room for two more teachers. Pine Grove, which produced a number of students who went on to very successful careers, operated as a segregated institution until it closed in 1968 and merged with the New Hope school district. (2001)