Scott Joplin

Where Joplin was born is less settled than the plaque suggests. The Handbook of Texas gives about 1867 and possibly Caves Spring near Linden, and the Encyclopedia of Arkansas says 1867 or 1868 near Marshall; the family reached Texarkana by about 1875. At about eleven he began free lessons with Julius Weiss, a Saxony-born tutor who taught him sight reading, harmony and an ear for opera. He composed Treemonisha between 1906 and 1910 and it was staged without success in 1915, two years before his death. A posthumous Pulitzer Prize followed in 1976.

What the plaque says

Scott Joplin (November 24, 1868 - April 1, 1917) Black composer Scott Joplin, often called the "King of Ragtime Music", was born in Texarkana, Texas, five years before the townsite was platted in 1873. His family lived in this vicinity, and he attended nearby Orr School on Laurel Street. His early musical training came from his father, Giles Joplin, an ex-slave who played the fiddle, and mother, Florence Givens Joplin, who played the banjo. By tradition, a German music teacher realized Joplin's talent and gave him lessons. Joplin left home at age 14 and wandered through the midwest entertaining in saloons and honky-tonks. In the 1890s, he was one of the originators of ragtime, a rhythmic new musical form that combined black and white musical traditions. Joplin's "Maple Leaf Rag", published in 1899, launched ragtime as a national fad. Joplin defended ragtime against those who called it frivolous and worked constantly to refine his music, which included over 30 piano rags. Demand for ragtime had declined by 1917, when Joplin died in New York City. Joplin's background is revealed in his most ambitious work, the black folk opera "Treemonisha", set on a plantation "northeast of the town of Texarkana". It was not produced until the 1970s, when a revival of Joplin's music inspired public recognition of his genius. (1976) Incise on back: Texarkana Joint Bicentennial Commission, Bowie County Historical Commission, Jerry L. Atkins, Nick Demopulos

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Museum of Regional History — 0.5 mi
  Texarkana's oldest museum, in an 1879 brick building on State Line Avenue, with Caddo pottery, one of Scott Joplin's pianos and a research library of city directories and photographs.
• Atlanta State Park — 18 mi
  A shoreline park on Wright Patman Lake, leased from the Army in 1954, where Caddo ancestors farmed the Sulphur River and wagon traces such as the Bobo Ferry trace still cross the woods.

More markers nearby

• Texarkana — steps away
• World War I Memorial — 0.3 mi
• First Disciples of Christ in Texas — 0.3 mi
• The French in Texas — 0.3 mi