Angleton Independent School District

Before 1942, The Facts reports, the furthest a Black student in Angleton could go in school without leaving the county was eighth grade. That year the Rev. Timothy Marshall Stewart of Wards Chapel United Methodist Church proposed a high school for Black residents and housed it in his church, until the district built A. B. Marshall High School as its segregated school. The Handbook of Texas counted 27 white and 28 Black schools in the county in 1935. In 1966 Marshall students were told the school would close as the district integrated, and its alumni still hold reunions.

What the plaque says

Angleton Independent School District On September 5, 1892, two Angleton residents donated one of the original town blocks near this site to the city for school purposes. Citizens contributed two hundred dollars for a frame building to house the first classes for Angleton students and serve as a meeting house for lectures, programs and services. Enrollment increased quickly, and the community made additions to the structure as needed. In 1897 Angleton was incorporated as a school district. A new brick building erected that year was destroyed in the 1900 storm but was soon replaced. The people of Angleton took pride in their school system and its support. The city touted its academic program to attract new residents. Citizens continued to demonstrate their dedication to the district by voting to enlarge the district from 12 to 25 square miles and approving the construction of another, larger brick facility after the second brick building was destroyed in a 1909 storm. The new structure was called "Albert Sidney Johnston School" for one of the county's famous former citizens. The community continued to grow, and within a few years a new high school was erected. In 1931 the school district served eleven grades instead of ten, and in about 1940 the district extended its program to twelve grades. Separate schools for African American and Hispanic students were established until widespread integration was achieved in the 1960s. The town annexed more rural land, resulting in a still-higher enrollment and more crowding in the schools. The Angleton School District continued to grow, and by the end of the twentieth century encompassed 396 square miles. (2000)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Brazoria National Wildlife Refuge — 11 mi
  Coastal prairie, salt marsh and bays between Freeport and Christmas Bay, where an auto tour along Big Slough passes wintering geese, ducks and wading birds in the tens of thousands.
• Varner-Hogg Plantation State Historic Site — 13 mi
  A Brazos sugar plantation built by enslaved people for the Patton family, later leased convict labor and Hogg family oil, now told through Rachel Patton and Sarah Ford.
• Levi Jordan Plantation State Historic Site — 18 mi
  A sugar and cotton plantation on the San Bernard River whose enslaved builders and their descendants left one of the best-preserved African American archeological sites in Texas.
• Brazos Bend State Park — 18 mi
  Oak and pecan bottomland, lakes and alligators on the Brazos River 45 miles from downtown Houston, with the museum's George Observatory in the woods.

More markers nearby

• First Baptist Church of Angleton — steps away
• Nathan H. Haller — steps away
• James Briton "Brit" Bailey — 5.7 mi
• The Brazos Canal — 7.6 mi