Pleasanton School Integration

The road to integration in Pleasanton began with a Black petition. Families found the Abraham Lincoln School inadequate and pressed for better in the mid-1950s, and the district answered by building new schools and putting integration to a vote, two months after the Little Rock crisis. Black high school students entered the new school on November 1, 1957. Black elementary pupils stayed in separate classes until January 1958, according to the Clio history entry, which also says every Black teacher in Pleasanton lost a job in the change.

What the plaque says

Pleasanton School Integration Pleasanton School District began educating African American children in 1913 with the creation of the Abraham Lincoln School. By 1955, students from the Lincoln School and white students were participating in football workouts together and scheduling basketball games. However, in 1956 the African American citizens felt that the Lincoln School was inadequate and petitioned for improvements. In 1957, Pleasanton School officials and residents considered the cost of building a new school for African Americans and the possibility of losing state funding and accreditation if action was not taken. All agreed that the current Lincoln School was not an acceptable option, and opted to integrate once the new high school and elementary school under construction were completed. Opposition to school integration in Texas was very apparent and bills such as House Bill 65 abolished the right of school trustees to integrate without a petition from the community and then a vote. The community of Pleasanton provided the petition and held a vote on October 26, 1957. By a vote of 343 to 88, Pleasanton School District became the first integrated school under House Bill 65. On November 1, 1957, nine black students entered the new high school with several media outlets present to record the event. Unlike many other integrated institutions, the Pleasanton High School recorded no incidents of violence and the students were welcomed by their white classmates. Pleasanton High School was peacefully integrated and African Americans were given the opportunity of a better education for their children. (2009)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Longhorn Museum — 1.8 mi
  Atascosa County in one roadside museum: longhorn-and-mustang ranching, a moved railroad depot and caboose, a horse-drawn hearse and the town that calls itself the birthplace of the cowboy.
• Atascosa County Courthouse — 4.4 mi
  The only surviving Mission Revival courthouse in Texas, built in 1912-13 on Jourdanton's town circle after a county seat vote that some residents still call a theft.
• Mission Espada and the Espada Aqueduct — 25 mi
  The southernmost San Antonio mission and the oldest Spanish aqueduct in the United States, still carrying river water over Sixmile Creek to the fields after nearly three centuries.

More markers nearby

• Old Rock Schoolhouse — 0.6 mi
• Pleasanton — 0.7 mi
• Capt. Peter F. Tumlinson — 0.7 mi
• George Washington Marion Duck — 0.7 mi