Former Site of Fred Douglass - G.W. Jackson School

Jackson's students learned trades. The school history on the Navarro County site says an industrial department opened in 1905 under Ann Ayers of Tuskegee, and a boys' manual training shop followed in 1907 with E. H. Earl, also of Tuskegee, teaching. A concert band formed in 1910 under Robert H. Hardee and won contests against the Cleburne and Terrell bands, but folded after two years for lack of money. A fire destroyed the main building and auditorium in August 1959, and the high school used the elementary building until October 1960.

What the plaque says

Former Site of Fred Douglass - G.W. Jackson School Corsicana built its first public school for blacks on this site in 1881. The early formal name, commemorating ethnic leader Frederick Douglass (1817-95), was changed in 1925 to honor the first principal, G.W. Jackson (1854-1940). A Booker T. Washington disciple, Jackson introduced industrial education and other progressive ideas. The school became famous for its music department and football championships, and had intensely loyal alumni. In 1970, integration ended its career. Its buildings were razed in 1974 and this park was created in 1976. (1977)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Petroleum Industry Park — 0.8 mi
  The pipes and drilling tower mark where a city water well struck oil on June 9, 1894, the start of the first Texas field to produce oil and gas in important quantities.
• Blind Lemon Memorial Cemetery — 21 mi
  The Freestone County grave of the Texas blues singer Blind Lemon Jefferson, who recorded for Paramount in Chicago from 1926 and died there in December 1929.
• Ellis County Courthouse — 30 mi
  J. Riely Gordon's courthouse of 1897 in Pecos red sandstone and pink granite, with twenty-one carved stone faces and two cornerstones left by a quarrel over its building.

More markers nearby

• Rex Ingram — steps away
• First Independent Baptist Church of Corsicana — 0.2 mi
• American Well & Prospecting Company — 0.3 mi
• Corsicana Newspapers — 0.4 mi