DUANE
Duane's take
Here's my telling of what the official marker at this site has to say. Now, some stories start with a bang, and some start with two things becoming one — and this one, well, it starts with two. Houston County school records dating from 1904 list two schools serving African American students out in those East Texas pines: Center Hill and Smith Grove.
Two schools, two communities, two sets of families doing what families do — holding on, building up, making something out of what they had. Then came 1925, and the two schools merged, forming the Center Grove School. And from that merging, a community grew up right around it, and they called it Center Grove.
Now that's the kind of thing that tends to happen when people plant something worth growing. By 1950 — and hold onto that for a second, because 1950 is not so far from 1925 — most Center Grove graduates were going on to college. Most of them.
That is not a small thing. That is a school doing what a school is supposed to do, and then some. There was a sports program, and after 1952 it had its own gym.
There were vocational programs, agriculture, music, sciences, homemaking — the full run of human endeavor, offered to young people who deserved nothing less. And here's the part that gets you right in the chest: many of those graduates came back. They came back to teach, to lead, to provide a quality education for the next generation of African American young people in that area, all the way until the district was integrated in 1969.
Decades of showing up. Decades of pouring back in. The marker at this site honors two principals by name — H.
L. Wooten and W. C.
Williams — and if a school is only as strong as the people who stand at its front, well, those names tell you everything you need to know about why Center Grove's story is worth stopping for.
What the marker says
Houston County school records dating from 1904 list two schools for African American students: Center Hill and Smith Grove. The schools merged in 1925, forming the Center Grove School. The community that grew up around the school was called Center Grove. By 1950, most Center Grove graduates went on to college. Sources of particular pride were the sports program, which had its own gym after 1952, and the vocational, agriculture, music, sciences, and homemaking programs. Many graduates returned to provide a quality education for area African American young people until the district was integrated in 1969. (1998) Incise on base: Honoring Principals H. L. Wooten and W. C. Williams