Clayton Vocational Institute

Joseph E. Clayton was born in Fulshear in 1879, finished high school in Houston and took a B.A. from Guadalupe College in Seguin in 1903. Alongside his work at Manor he lectured for the Texas Department of Agriculture from 1907 to 1919. In 1923 he began the work that occupied his later years: moving Black families out of cities onto farms of their own. He bought 2,000 acres in Texas, divided them into small farms and invited Black families to settle and support themselves. In 1924 he organized the National Self-Help Association.

What the plaque says

Clayton Vocational Institute In 1903 the Rev. Joseph E. Clayton was called to be principal of Manor's first black school. Under his leadership, the educational program included vocational and mechanical training, as well as the study of languages, arts, and sciences. In 1919 the facility became part of the public school system and was known as Clayton Vocational Institute. Clayton, who served as principal until 1925, later was an active leader in the Southern Tenant Farmers Union. Throughout its history, the separate school for black students produced a number of outstanding graduates. (1984)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• LBJ Presidential Library — 11 mi
  A ten-story travertine archive on the University of Texas campus holding 45 million pages from a presidency of civil rights laws, the War on Poverty and Vietnam.
• George Washington Carver Museum — 11 mi
  East Austin's museum of Black history and culture, grown from a segregated branch library moved across town in 1933, with a permanent exhibit on Juneteenth at its core.
• Texas State Cemetery — 11 mi
  A hill east of the Capitol that began with one general's grave in 1851 and now holds Stephen F. Austin, governors, Barbara Jordan and more than 2,000 Confederate veterans and widows.
• French Legation State Historic Site — 11 mi
  A raised pine house built in 1840 and 1841 for France's envoy to the Republic of Texas, who left Austin in a rage over a neighbor's pigs before it was finished.

More markers nearby

• City of Manor — 0.4 mi
• Manor Cemetery — 0.7 mi
• Decker United Methodist Church and Community — 3.8 mi
• St. John Church — 6.0 mi