Doyle Colored School

Schools for Black Texans began with the Freedmen's Bureau. In January 1866 Texas had ten day and six night schools with 1,041 pupils; by July there were ninety schools and 4,590 students. In 1870 eighty-five teachers, forty-four of them Black, taught 4,478 students. The Reconstruction legislature of 1870 created a single school system for all children, but laws of 1873 and 1875 repealed most of it. Black teachers first met as the Colored Teachers Association in 1884. The state's first survey of Black schools, in 1921, counted 6,369 secondary pupils, and by 1925, 150 institutions offered high school work.

What the plaque says

Doyle Colored School The Doyle School began as an African American school in 1909. The African American community raised $53 to move the frame building of the former school for white students after a new one was built. The land where the building was moved was donated by Anna W. Doyle, who was the head teacher for nearly two decades. The one-room schoolhouse had no utilities until running water was installed in 1920 and electric lights were installed in 1923. The black population in Kerrville was small and only 25 students from five north Kerrville families attended. The school expanded to include three classrooms, an auditorium, two bathrooms and a storage area. There was still no formal name for the school at the time. As enrollment grew to about 75 students in 1940, husband and wife B.T. and Itasco Wilson and Miss l.E. Cheeks were hired as teachers. B.T. (Prof) Wilson was revered in the community for his dedication to the students of Doyle. It was Wilson who decided that the school should be named after Anna W. Doyle. The school had high enough enrollment for athletic teams, cheerleaders, a choir and a marching band. Classes included sports, theater, music and home economics, alongside traditional academic subjects. Integration of the Kerrville schools in 1964 reduced the school to a one-year program for elementary students. After one year, all African American students were integrated. In 1970, Doyle became a kindergarten campus under the direction of Starkey Elementary School Principal, Fred H. Tally, and Head Teacher, Jean Tally. B.T. Wilson continued to positively influence students in his new position and the sixth grade school was eventually named for him. The Doyle School building was sold to a non-profit neighborhood association and remains open as a community center. (2015)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Schreiner Mansion — 0.7 mi
  The 1879 downtown home of Charles Schreiner, the Alsatian-born merchant, banker and rancher whose store and mohair trade built Kerrville.
• Treue der Union Monument — 15 mi
  An 1866 German-language monument in Comfort over the graves of Hill Country Unionists killed at the Nueces in 1862, its flag of thirty-six stars kept at half-staff.
• Old Tunnel State Park — 20 mi
  A railroad tunnel abandoned in 1942 that now shelters up to three million Mexican free-tailed bats, who fly out each evening from May through October.
• Vereins Kirche and Main Street — 22 mi
  The octagonal Society Church on Fredericksburg's market square, rebuilt in stone in the 1930s, beside a main street laid out like a Rhine village.

More markers nearby

• Barnett Chapel Methodist Church — steps away
• The Famous Door Café — steps away
• Mount Olive Baptist Church — steps away
• H-E-B — 0.4 mi