Site of Rusk Public School No. 2 for African Americans

According to the Cherokeean Herald, George W. Bradford was first principal of the school built for Rusk's Black students in 1938-39, and he retired in May 1948. The school was later renamed George W. Bradford High School and closed after the 1968 school year, when desegregation sent its students to the local high school. A granite marker to him was dedicated at the original school site on the 1976 bicentennial and rededicated 45 years later before about 70 people with ties to him. Rusk Primary School now carries his name.

What the plaque says

Site of Rusk Public School No. 2 for African Americans By 1884 the Rusk Public School District maintained two schools: No. 1 for its Anglo students and No. 2 for its African American students. A yearly average of 50 students met in a small house built here about 1895 to house Rusk Public School No. 2. In 1939 the Rusk Independent School District erected a new school building southeast of downtown Rusk for its African American students. Named after long-term principal G. W. Bradford, the facility was used until Rusk integrated its schools in the 1960s. Many graduates of this school became highly respected professionals. (1993)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Caddo Mounds State Historic Site — 14 mi
  Three earthen mounds of an ancestral Caddo village and ceremonial center on the old El Camino Real, settled about A.D. 800 and still sacred to Caddo people, with a grass house and visitor center.
• Texas State Railroad Excursion Train — 25 mi
  A round trip of about 25 miles of track between the Palestine and Rusk depots through the Piney Woods, on a line built by prison labor and reopened as a tourist railroad in 1976.

More markers nearby

• Site of Sam Houston Speeches — 0.3 mi
• Cherokee County C.S.A. — 0.5 mi
• The Rusk Cherokeean — 0.5 mi
• Cherokee County — 0.5 mi