Tarver School

Duane's take

Here's my telling of what the official marker says about Tarver School in Del Rio, Val Verde County. Now settle in, because this one's about a school that carried a whole community on its back, and did it with next to nothing. Records show that as early as 1901, Del Rio had organized a school for African American students.

That early school closed sometime in the nineteen twenties, and for a stretch, those students were left to figure out what came next. Then Del Rio ISD reached into a bond package from nineteen twenty-nine and thirty, and used part of those funds to build something new. One room.

Stucco exterior. On Ware Street. They called it Brackenridge at first.

Now, one room doesn't sound like much, and truth is, it wasn't equipped like much either. Few books, little in the way of materials, and what they did have was often the castoffs, the discards, from other schools in the district. Each grade typically held just a handful of students.

You could fit the whole school in a single breath if you tried. But here's the thing about a small place with dedicated people: it endures. By the nineteen fifties, the faculty had grown to one principal and three teachers.

A building was moved in from Laughlin Air Force Base and divided up to serve both junior and senior high grades. That is a school making do, making room, making something out of whatever the world left over. Then Principal W.

H. Tarver died, and the community did what communities do when they want to hold onto someone. They renamed the school in his honor.

Tarver School. His name on the door, long after he was gone. The school carried that name until nineteen fifty-seven, when segregation's end brought its doors shut for good.

What was built from a bond package and borrowed furniture and secondhand books had outlasted the system that underfunded it. That's the Tarver School.

What the marker says

Records show a school for African American students in Del Rio was organized as early as 1901, closing in the 1920s. Del Rio ISD used part of a 1929-30 bond package to build a one-room stucco exterior school on Ware Street. The school, first known as Brackenridge, had few books or equipment, often using materials discarded from other schools. Typically, each grade included just a few students. In the 1950s, the faculty numbered one principal and three teachers. A building moved in from Laughlin Air Force Base was divided into junior and senior high grades. When Principal W. H. Tarver died, the school was renamed in his honor. With the end of segregation, the school closed in 1957. (2013)