Public Education for Blacks in Galveston

Black Galveston had a school before the school board did. In 1869 a white missionary, Sarah Barnes, used Freedmen's Bureau money to open the Barnes Institute on Avenue M, the city's first school for African Americans; by 1876 it had four teachers and more than 300 students. Central High, organized in 1885, was the first high school for Black students in Texas, and J. R. Gibson was its principal for fifty years, from 1886 to 1936. In 1905 the Colored Branch of the Rosenberg Library opened in the building, the first public library for African Americans in Texas.

What the plaque says

Public Education for Blacks in Galveston Attempts to open public, tax-supported schools in Galveston after the Civil War (1861-65) were delayed by yellow fever and lack of funds, but in 1881 the school board devised a sound system of free public education. This included classes for black children in two rented locations, called the East Broadway Colored School and Barnes Institute. A year later, the system was revised on geographic lines, with an east district and a west district school. In 1885, Central High School for blacks opened in rented quarters at 16th and Avenue L. From 1889 to 1893 it was housed at 15th Street and Avenue N. Leading architect Nicholas Clayton was then engaged to design a structure for this site. Built especially for Central, it was the pride of the community. In 1905, Central was chosen to house a branch of the Rosenberg Library. The school building was enlarged in 1924. The school itself was relocated in 1954, and phased out by integration in 1968. Central High School was a cherished institution in the Galveston black community. This third campus of the high school, a site rich in traditions and history, was rejuvenated in 1976 as a cultural center. (1977)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Moody Mansion — 0.2 mi
  A four-story, 28,000-square-foot house on Broadway, finished in 1895, that W. L. Moody Jr. bought just after the 1900 storm and his family kept until Hurricane Alicia in 1983.
• 1859 Ashton Villa — 0.3 mi
  A brick Italianate house on Broadway, built with enslaved labor in 1859, whose lawn has held Galveston's Juneteenth commemoration of General Orders, No. 3 every year since 1979.
• The Strand — 0.8 mi
  Five blocks of iron-front brick buildings near the harbor that were once called the Wall Street of the Southwest, emptied after 1900 and brought back by preservationists from the 1960s.
• Texas Seaport Museum and the Elissa — 0.9 mi
  An iron barque launched in Aberdeen in 1877 that called at Galveston twice, ended up smuggling in the Adriatic, and was bought back from a Greek scrapyard to sail again from Pier 22.

More markers nearby

• Jack Johnson — steps away
• Avenue L Missionary Baptist Church — steps away
• Shiloh A. M. E. Church — steps away
• Site of Ursuline Convent and Academy — steps away