A. J. Moore High School

The plaque credits Moore High with more than 4,000 graduates and names none of them. Two are easy to find. Eddie Bernice Johnson finished at sixteen, trained as a nurse, and later served in Congress for Texas's 30th district. Tom Wilson, born in Waco in 1931, attended Moore, went on to Harvard, and became a record producer; a photograph shows him with Bob Dylan recording "Like a Rolling Stone" in 1965. Wikipedia's page on the school of the same name covers a later magnet school, not this one, so alumni memories are the surer guide to the original.

What the plaque says

A. J. Moore High School In 1875 professor A.J. Moore of Paul Quinn College, concerned over the lack of quality education for Waco's negro population, began teaching small groups of children in his home. The first schoolhouse, a frame building that had been relocated east of this site, had formerly served as a hospital. In 1923, the frame schoolhouse was replaced with a brick building. The school was renamed for its founder, A.J. Moore, who served as principal from 1881 to 1905. As the first school in Waco designated to educate the city's negro youth, A.J. Moore High School was an important institution in the community. Until 1952, Moore High housed students from grades one through twelve from 1952 to 1971 it served grades seven through twelve only. Moore High was closed in 1971. More than 4,000 students were graduated form A.J. Moore High School during its nearly 100 years of service. Many of them have made significant contributions in the fields of education, medicine, religion, law, public health, business, engineering, law enforcement, social services,theater, sports, and military service. (1985)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Texas Ranger Hall of Fame and Museum — 0.2 mi
  The official state repository of Texas Ranger memorabilia, opened in 1968 in Fort Fisher Park on the Brazos, named for a Ranger post of 1837 whose site no one has located.
• Waco Suspension Bridge — 0.4 mi
  A Brazos crossing opened in January 1870 as the longest single-span suspension bridge west of the Mississippi, tolled until 1889, closed to vehicles in 1971 and now walked.
• Dr Pepper Museum — 0.5 mi
  The 1906 bottling plant of the Artesian Manufacturing and Bottling Company, built where Dr Pepper outgrew a Waco drugstore soda fountain, now the Dr Pepper Museum.
• Armstrong Browning Library — 1.0 mi
  A three-story Italian Renaissance library on the Baylor campus built to hold A. J. Armstrong's Browning collection, dedicated in December 1951 and now, by its own account, the world's largest of Browning material.

More markers nearby

• Site of First Church Building in Waco — steps away
• Waco, County Seat of McLennan County — 0.2 mi
• Thomas Hudson Barron — 0.3 mi
• Samuel Johan Forsgard — 0.3 mi