Blackwell School

Last updated
Blackwell School
NPS photo of Blackwell School.jpg
USA Texas location map.svg
Red pog.svg
Usa edcp location map.svg
Red pog.svg
Location501 South Abbot St.
Marfa, Texas
Coordinates 30°18′21″N104°01′20″W / 30.3059°N 104.0221°W / 30.3059; -104.0221
Built1909
Architectural styleLate Victorian
Website Blackwell School National Historic Site
NRHP reference No. 100004751
Significant dates
Added to NRHPDecember 4, 2019 [1]
Designated NHSOctober 17, 2022

The Blackwell School was a segregrated school in Marfa, Texas, that served the city's Hispanic population from its construction in 1909 until the end of school segration in 1965. On October 17, 2022, President Joe Biden signed legislation authorizing the establishment of Blackwell School National Historic Site as a unit of the National Park Service upon federal acquisition of the property. [2] The site memorializes the history of supposedly "separate but equal" practices in Texas and elsewhere, as well as the role of education in Mexican American culture and the Marfa community. [3]

Contents

The main schoolhouse building is made of adobe and has three rooms. [4] The site also includes the Band Hall, built in 1927 as an additional classroom; [2] other buildings have since been torn down. Originally called the Ward or Mexican School, in 1940 it was named after the principal Jesse Blackwell. [5] [6] At that time the school had grown to more than 600 students. [7] After 1954, students were not permitted to speak Spanish; one former student recounted holding a mock funeral for the language. [8] Although segregation was not required by state law, many Texas school districts practiced it until more than a decade after the Brown v. Board of Education decision. [9]

Alumni formed the Blackwell School Alliance to preserve the school in 2006 when the Marfa Independent School District proposed demolishing it. [10] Their efforts led to the school's listing on the National Register of Historic Places in 2019. The Alliance will continue to maintain the school until the National Park Service acquires sufficient land from the district. [2] The national historic site will be the second area in the National Park System specifically about Hispanic American history, after César E. Chávez National Monument. [11]

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tarrant County, Texas</span> County in Texas, United States

Tarrant County is a county located in the U.S. state of Texas with a 2020 U.S. census population of 2,110,640, making it the third-most populous county in Texas and the 15th-most populous in the United States. Its county seat is Fort Worth. Tarrant County, one of 26 counties created out of the Peters Colony, was established in 1849 and organized the next year. It is named after Edward H. Tarrant, a lawyer, politician, and militia leader.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Rockwall County, Texas</span> County in Texas, United States

Rockwall County is a county in the U.S. state of Texas. At 149 square miles, Rockwall County has the smallest area of any Texas county. Per the 2020 Census, its population was 107,819. Its county seat is Rockwall. The county and city are named for a wall-like subterranean rock formation that runs throughout the county.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Presidio County, Texas</span> County in Texas, United States

Presidio County is a county located in the U.S. state of Texas. As of the 2020 census, its population was 6,131. Its county seat is Marfa. The county was created in 1850 and later organized in 1875. Presidio County is in the Trans-Pecos region of West Texas and is named for the border settlement of Presidio del Norte. It is on the Rio Grande, which forms the Mexican border.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ellis County, Texas</span> County in Texas, United States

Ellis County is a county located in the U.S. state of Texas. As of 2020, its population was estimated to be 192,455. The county seat is Waxahachie. The county was founded in 1849 and organized the next year. It is named for Richard Ellis, president of the convention that produced the Texas Declaration of Independence. Ellis County is included in the Dallas–Fort Worth–Arlington metropolitan statistical area.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Denton County, Texas</span> County in Texas, United States

Denton County is located in the U.S. state of Texas. As of the 2020 census, its population was 906,422, making it the seventh-most populous county in Texas. The county seat is Denton. The county, which was named for John B. Denton, was established in 1846. Denton County constitutes part of the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex. In 2007, it was one of the fastest-growing counties in the United States.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dallas County, Texas</span> County in Texas, United States

Dallas County is the second-most populous county in the U.S. state of Texas with a 2020 U.S. census of 2,613,539, making it the ninth-most populous county in the country. Dallas County is included in the Dallas-Arlington-Fort Worth metropolitan statistical area—colloquially referred to as the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex. Municipal expansion within Dallas County has blurred the geographic lines between cities and between neighboring counties.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Marfa, Texas</span> City in Texas, United States

Marfa is a city in the high desert of the Trans-Pecos in far West Texas, United States, between the Davis Mountains and Big Bend National Park, at an elevation of 4685 feet. It is the county seat of Presidio County, and its population as of the 2020 United States Census was 1,788. The city was founded in the early 1880s as a water stop; the population peaked in the 1930s and has continued to decline each decade since. However, today Marfa is a tourist destination and a major center for minimalist art. Attractions include Building 98, the Chinati Foundation, artisan shops, historical architecture, a classic Texas town square, modern art installments, art galleries, and the Marfa lights.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Fair Park</span> United States historic place

Fair Park is a recreational and educational complex in Dallas, Texas, United States, located immediately east of downtown. The 277-acre (112 ha) area is registered as a Dallas Landmark and National Historic Landmark; many of the buildings were constructed for the Texas Centennial Exposition in 1936.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">College of Charleston</span> Public college in Charleston, South Carolina, US

The College of Charleston is a public university in Charleston, South Carolina. Founded in 1770 and chartered in 1785, it is the oldest university in South Carolina, the 13th-oldest institution of higher learning in the United States, and the oldest municipal college in the nation.

Brown v. Board of Education National Historical Park was established in Topeka, Kansas, on October 26, 1992, by the United States Congress to commemorate the landmark decision of the U.S. Supreme Court in the case Brown v. Board of Education aimed at ending racial segregation in public schools. On May 17, 1954, the Supreme Court unanimously declared that "separate educational facilities are inherently unequal" and, as such, violated the 14th Amendment to the United States Constitution, which guarantees all citizens "equal protection of the laws."

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dallas Baptist University</span> Private university in Dallas, Texas, U.S.

Dallas Baptist University (DBU) is a private Christian university in Dallas, Texas. Founded in 1898 as Decatur Baptist College, Dallas Baptist University currently operates campuses in Dallas, Plano, and Hurst.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dallas Independent School District</span> School district in Texas, United States

The Dallas Independent School District is a school district based in Dallas, Texas (USA). It operates schools in much of Dallas County and is the second-largest school district in Texas and the seventeenth-largest in the United States. It is also known as Dallas Public Schools (DPS).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">W. H. Adamson High School</span> School in Dallas, Texas, United States

William Hardin Adamson High School, formerly Oak Cliff High School, is a public secondary school located in the Oak Cliff area of Dallas, Texas, United States. It is part of the Dallas Independent School District and is classified as a 5A school by the UIL. In 2015, the school was rated "Met Standard" by the Texas Education Agency.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Amache National Historic Site</span> National Historic Site of the United States in Colorado

The Amache National Historic Site, formally the Granada War Relocation Center but known to the internees as Camp Amache, was a concentration camp for Japanese Americans in Prowers County, Colorado. Following the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, Japanese Americans on the West Coast were rounded up and sent to remote camps. Among the inmates, the notation "亜町" was sometimes applied.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">James Madison High School (Dallas)</span> Public, secondary school in Dallas, Texas, United States

James Madison High School, formerly Forest Avenue High School, is a public secondary school in Dallas, Texas (USA). Madison High School enrolls students in grades 9-12 and is a part of the Dallas Independent School District.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Robert Russa Moton Museum</span>

The Robert Russa Moton Museum is a historic site and museum in Farmville, Prince Edward County, Virginia. It is located in the former Robert Russa Moton High School, considered "the student birthplace of America's Civil Rights Movement" for its initial student strike and ultimate role in the 1954 Brown v. Board of Education case desegregating public schools. It was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1998, and is now a museum dedicated to that history. In 2022 it was designated an affiliated area of Brown v. Board of Education National Historical Park. The museum were named for African-American educator Robert Russa Moton.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sylvia Mendez</span> American civil rights activist

Sylvia Mendez is an American civil rights activist and retired nurse. At age eight, she played an instrumental role in the Mendez v. Westminster case, the landmark desegregation case of 1946. The case successfully ended de jure segregation in California and paved the way for integration and the American civil rights movement.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Masonic Home Independent School District</span> School district in Texas

The Masonic Home and School of Texas was a home for widows and orphans in what is now Fort Worth, Texas from 1889 to 2005. The first superintendent was Dr. Frank Rainey of Austin, Texas. Starting in 1913, it had its own school system, the Masonic Home Independent School District. Orphan Blake R. Van Leer was the only boy in 1909, went on to become president of Georgia Tech and civil rights advocate.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">John Philip Sousa Junior High School</span> Historic school building in Washington, D.C., United States

The John Philip Sousa Middle School, formerly the John Philip Sousa Junior High School, is a public school located at 3650 Ely Place in SE area of Washington, D.C. Located in the city's Fort Dupont neighborhood, it serves grades 6–8. Its school building, built in 1950, was the scene of civil rights action not long after its construction. Twelve black students were denied admission to the all-white school. This action was eventually overturned in the landmark 1954 Supreme Court decision in Bolling v. Sharpe, which made segregated public schools illegal in the District of Columbia. The defeat of the legal doctrine "separate but equal" marked an early victory in the modern Civil Rights Movement.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cedar Hill, Texas</span> City in Texas, United States

Cedar Hill is a city in Dallas and Ellis counties in the U.S. state of Texas. It is located approximately 16 miles (26 km) southwest of downtown Dallas and is situated along the eastern shore of Joe Pool Lake and Cedar Hill State Park. Per the 2020 United States census, the population was 49,148. Cedar Hill is a suburb of the city of Dallas and is part of the Best Southwest area, which includes the nearby cities of DeSoto, Duncanville, and Lancaster.

References

  1. "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places . National Park Service. April 15, 2008.
  2. 1 2 3 "President Biden Designates Blackwell School National Historic Site as America's Newest National Park". US Department of the Interior. 2022-10-18. Retrieved 2022-10-23.
  3. "S.2490 - Blackwell School National Historic Site Act". Congress.gov.
  4. "Congress makes the historic segregated Blackwell School in West Texas a national park site". Dallas News. 2022-09-21. Retrieved 2022-10-25.
  5. "EXPLORE HISTORY". Blackwell School. Retrieved 2022-10-23.
  6. "Blackwell School". National Park Service. Retrieved 2022-10-23.
  7. "Preserving the Complicated History at a Segregated Texas School". National Parks Conservation Association. Retrieved 2022-10-23.
  8. "Congress makes the historic segregated Blackwell School in West Texas a national park site". Dallas News. 2022-09-21. Retrieved 2022-10-25.
  9. "Marfa's Blackwell School given national historic status". Texas Standard. 30 September 2022. Retrieved 2022-10-23.
  10. "Victory! Blackwell School Becomes America's Newest National Park Site". National Parks Conservation Association. Retrieved 2022-10-25.
  11. Paulsen, Stephen (2020-09-11). "Reps. Hurd, Vela file bill to make Blackwell a National Historic Site". The Big Bend Sentinel. Retrieved 2022-10-25.