Guadalupe Elementary School

San Angelo's school fight sat inside a statewide pattern. Until the late 1940s Mexican American children in Texas usually attended segregated campuses with minimal facilities, a curriculum often limited to vocational training, and encouragement to leave after the sixth grade. The 1950 census put the median schooling of Spanish-surnamed adults over twenty-five at 3.5 years, against 10.3 for other white Americans, and about 27 percent had none at all. That is the gap behind the parents' 1910 petition, the boycott of 1911 to 1915 and the alumni who formed their association in 1992.

What the plaque says

Guadalupe Elementary School From its inception, San Angelo, like most Texas towns, struggled with "separate but equal" schools for its citizens. Separate public education began in San Angelo in 1895. By 1906 the small school for Mexican American students was filled to capacity in deteriorating conditions. Parents hired legal counsel in 1910 to request that the school board integrate the Mexican and Anglo schools. The board refused but did open an additional Mexican American school. From 1911 through the 1915 school year, the Mexican American community boycotted the public schools. By 1916 many had returned to the single remaining segregated school, but conditions again deteriorated. In 1923, due to the cooperative efforts of Mexican American parents and Mrs. Ginevra Wood Carson (1872-1958), the district opened a new brick building with four classrooms and modern facilities later known as Guadalupe Elementary School. During the Depression, Mrs. Josefa Camunez (1884-1972) opened her closed grocery store as a temporary cafeteria for Guadalupe students.In 1938 a clinic, an office and two more classrooms were added. By 1940 a kitchen was in operation at the school with meals funded by the Works Progress Administration. The San Angelo Independent School District was integrated in 1955 and Guadalupe school closed in 1959. Since that time, the structure has housed several community and civic programs such as "Head Start" and adult education. The Guadalupe Alumni(ae) Association was formed in 1992. (1998)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Miss Hattie's Bordello Museum — 1.0 mi
  The upstairs rooms on Concho Avenue where a brothel ran from 1902 until the Texas Rangers closed it in 1952, shown on short guided tours with most of the furnishings original.
• Concho River Walk — 1.1 mi
  Four miles of lit trails along the North Concho through downtown San Angelo, rebuilt after voters taxed themselves in 2004, with gardens, sculpture, a river stage and stocked trout.
• San Angelo Museum of Fine Arts — 1.3 mi
  A free art museum on the Concho beside Fort Concho, founded in the fort's 1868 quartermaster building and known nationally for its biennial ceramics competition.
• Fort Concho National Historic Landmark — 1.5 mi
  The stone post at the forks of the Concho, headquarters of the Tenth Cavalry from 1875 to 1882, saved by a woman with a museum and now a city-run landmark of 23 original buildings.

More markers nearby

• First Presbyterian Church — 0.7 mi
• The San Angelo Standard — 0.7 mi
• Charles B. Metcalfe — 0.8 mi
• Original Tom Green County — 0.8 mi