Site of Central School

Duane's take

Here's how the official marker tells it, and I'm going to give it the telling it deserves. Now, picture Marshall, Texas, sometime before 1894. If you were an African American child in that town and you wanted an education, you took what you could get.

Classes held in homes. In churches. In lodge halls.

Nothing fixed, nothing guaranteed, just people doing their level best with what little the city was willing to provide. That was the situation, and it had gone on long enough. Enter Professor H.

B. Pemberton, Sr. The marker doesn't waste words on him, so neither will I, but you hear that title, Professor, and you understand something about the kind of man he was.

In 1894, Pemberton walked into a room with city officials and convinced them, convinced them, that Marshall's African American children deserved a real school building and a fixed curriculum. That alone is worth sitting with for a moment. But Pemberton didn't stop at convincing.

He arranged a loan to make it happen. And here is the part that ought to echo a little: the African American community repaid that loan themselves. They built their own foundation, literally and otherwise.

The school that rose at this very site in 1894 was called Central School, Marshall's first public school for African Americans. Central grew. By 1906 it had expanded to include a high school.

Then in 1925, Central High School moved on to a new location, and the school remaining here took a new name, Hillside. Hillside School closed in 1941. That's the whole arc, right there on one piece of ground.

A community that started with borrowed rooms, built something permanent, watched it grow, watched it change names, and then watched the doors close. The site is still here. The story took some finding, but it didn't disappear.

What the marker says

Early schools for Marshall's African Americans consisted of loosely organized classes held in homes, churches, and lodge halls. In 1894 Professor H. B. Pemberton, Sr., convinced city officials of the need for a school building and a fixed curriculum for African Americans. Pemberton arranged a loan, which the African American community repaid, to establish Marshall's first public school, "Central School," at this site in 1894. Central expanded in 1906 to include a high school. Central High School moved in 1925 and the school here was renamed "Hillside." Hillside School closed in 1941. (1994)