DUANE
Duane's take
Here's how the official marker tells it, and I'll do my best to do it justice. Way out in Sabine County, there's a story about education, determination, and a school that kept changing its name — but never its purpose. It starts before most folks alive today were born, and it runs all the way to integration and beyond.
Pull up a chair. This one's got some weight to it. The Hemphill School in Sabine County was established between 1929 and 1930.
Now, smaller schools for African Americans had existed in that area since the end of the Civil War — so the tradition of reaching for education in Sabine County was already deep-rooted by the time this school came along. But by the 1930s, the Hemphill school was one of the very few African American schools left standing in the county. One of the few.
Think about what that meant for every family sending a child through those doors. And here's where the story gets bigger than one county. This school was originally one of thousands — thousands — of schools for African Americans partially funded by something called the Rosenwald Fund.
Established in 1917, the Rosenwald Fund was a collaboration between Julius Rosenwald, President of Sears, Roebuck and Company, and noted African American educator Booker T. Washington. Their shared mission was to fund African American schools in rural areas throughout the South.
One school at a time, scattered across the countryside, quietly building something that outlasted them both. By 1949, the school received new facilities and was renamed the Hemphill Colored School. That same year, school principal Russell Sage Simmons did something that tells you everything you need to know about the kind of people running this place — he created a school annual called The Hawk.
It documented student names, plans, and history. A record. A testament.
A way of saying: these young people were here, and they mattered. The Hawk also featured pages on a Veterans School that had been added to the campus as part of a nationwide program to provide technical training for returning veterans of World War Two. Robert T.
Cannon taught technical skills. Mrs. V.M.
Jones taught reading, writing, and math. Soldiers who'd served their country were coming back to this campus in Sabine County to build a future — and these teachers were there to help them do it. In the mid-1950s, a new school and gymnasium were built.
The place kept growing. And by 1959, the school became known as the Thomas Johnson School. In 1966, the Thomas Johnson School integrated into the Hemphill Independent School District.
The school went on serving as an elementary school, until eventually all students were moved to schools closer to the city. But the marker makes sure you know this: the Rosenwald School served as a major foundation for African American education in this community since the early twentieth century. From those first small schools after the Civil War, to a collaboration stretching all the way to Sears, Roebuck and Company, to a principal publishin a yearbook called The Hawk, to veterans learning trades in the Texas Piney Woods — the Thomas Johnson School carried something forward.
The names are in the record. The Hawk saw to that.
What the marker says
The Hemphill School in Sabine County was established between 1929 and 1930. Smaller schools existed in the area since the end of the Civil War for African Americans, but by the 1930s the Hemphill school was one of the few African American schools in the county. This school was originally one of thousands of schools for African Americans that were partially funded by the Rosenwald Fund. Established in 1917, the Rosenwald Fund was a collaboration between Julius Rosenwald, President of Sears, Roebuck and Company, and noted African American educator Booker T. Washington to fund African American schools in rural areas throughout the south. By 1949, the school received new facilities and became renamed the Hemphill Colored School. That year school principal Russell Sage Simmons created a school annual called "The Hawk", which documented student names, plans and history. The publication also featured pages on a Veterans School that was added to the campus site as part of a nationwide program to provide technical training for returning veterans of WWII. Robert T. Cannon taught technical skills while Mrs. V.M. Jones taught reading, writing and math. In the mid-1950s, a new school and gymnasium were built. By 1959, the school became known as the Thomas Johnson School. In 1966, the Thomas Johnson School integrated into the Hemphill Independent School District. The school continued to be used as an elementary school, but eventually all students were moved to schools closer to the city. The Rosenwald School served as a major foundation for African American education in the community since the early 20th century.