Tarver School

The Constitution of 1876 reestablished separate schools for Black and White children while promising impartial provision for each. The promise went unkept. In the 1920s and 1930s Texas spent about a third less on Black students than on White ones, and Black teachers earned $91.60 a month against $121.03. After Brown v. Board of Education in 1954, San Antonio became one of the first districts in the nation to comply, beginning in the 1955-56 school year, and by 1964 Texas accounted for about 60 percent of the desegregated school districts in the South.

What the plaque says

Tarver School Records show a school for African American students in Del Rio was organized as early as 1901, closing in the 1920s. Del Rio ISD used part of a 1929-30 bond package to build a one-room stucco exterior school on Ware Street. The school, first known as Brackenridge, had few books or equipment, often using materials discarded from other schools. Typically, each grade included just a few students. In the 1950s, the faculty numbered one principal and three teachers. A building moved in from Laughlin Air Force Base was divided into junior and senior high grades. When Principal W. H. Tarver died, the school was renamed in his honor. With the end of segregation, the school closed in 1957. (2013)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Whitehead Memorial Museum — 0.8 mi
  A village of old Del Rio buildings set along a working irrigation canal, from an 1870 store to a 1925 doctor's office, with Judge Roy Bean buried on the grounds.
• Val Verde Winery — 1.2 mi
  The family winery an Italian immigrant founded on Del Rio's irrigated land in 1883, which outlasted Prohibition by selling table grapes and kept Texas wine alive into the 1970s.
• San Felipe Creek — 1.3 mi
  The spring-fed creek that made Del Rio, rising from the third largest springs in Texas and running past swimming holes and a hike-and-bike trail through town.
• Amistad National Recreation Area — 8.8 mi
  The American side of the reservoir the United States and Mexico finished in 1969 where three rivers meet, with painted shelters still reachable by boat when the water allows.

More markers nearby

• Old Del Rio High School — 0.5 mi
• City of Del Rio — 0.6 mi
• Max and Anna Stool — 0.6 mi
• Canal System of Del Rio — 0.6 mi