DUANE
Duane's take
Here's my telling of what the official marker has to say about this place — and it's a story worth slowing down for. Somewhere in the northwest corner of Bonham, Texas, a school was born. Local tradition puts the Bonham Colored School in a single room — one room — sometime in the early 1890s.
Now, you might look at that one-room structure and think, well, that's a modest beginning. But modest beginnings have a way of becoming something remarkable, if the community around them is determined enough. By 1904, forty pupils were enrolled and four teachers were working that school.
Forty kids. Four teachers. A community investing in its children.
Then watch what happens: by 1911, enrollment had climbed to two hundred and sixteen. Two hundred and sixteen. That's not growth, that's a statement.
By 1920, the school had stretched itself to eleven grades and taken on a name that carried weight — Booker T. Washington. And then came 1928.
A new school complex, built on ten acres right here, funded in part by the Rosenwald Foundation. Ray Seay was serving as principal. Ten acres.
That's not a schoolhouse anymore — that's a campus, that's an anchor, that's a promise kept to a community. The school kept growing. Twelve grades by 1940.
Twelve full grades of education for Bonham's African American children, their families, their neighbors — because that's what this place became. Not just a school. The marker says it plainly: a focal point for Bonham's entire African American community.
Everything ran through here. And then, in 1966, it closed. School integration brought an end to Booker T.
Washington School after decades of standing at the center of community life. The building is gone now. But the marker stands where those ten acres were, and it holds the count — forty pupils, then two hundred and sixteen, four teachers, eleven grades, then twelve, and one community that built something lasting out of a single room.
What the marker says
According to local tradition the Bonham Colored School began in a one-room structure in northwest Bonham in the early 1890s. Enrollment in the 4-teacher school grew from 40 pupils in 1904 to 216 in 1911. By 1920 the school offered 11 grades and was called Booker T. Washington. A new school complex, funded in part by the Rosenwald Foundation, was built on 10 acres here in 1928; Ray Seay served as principal. The school expanded to 12 grades in 1940. Until 1966, when it closed due to school integration, the school served as a focal point for Bonham's entire African American community. Sesquicentennial of Texas Statehood 1845 - 1995