OVERVIEW – ABRAHAM B. MARSHALL HIGH SCHOOL

The overwhelming and growing need to educate African American students in the early 1900s in central Brazoria County led to the establishment of the following community schools:

1.  St. Joseph Methodist Church School, located at the end of County Road 610A, served the portions of the McBeth Community. Corine King Allen attended the school through the sixth grade and gave videotaped testimony of her experience (3).

2.  Mt. Olive Baptist Church, Sandy Point, TX, was verified by Willie Mae Roberson Galley, who attended the school. Mrs. Willie Mae Galley attended the first grade at the Mt. Olive program. The Mt. Olive program was superseded by establishing the Booker T. Washington School, Sandy Point, TX (4). The Booker T. Washington School in Sandy Point was a Rosenwald School, 1928 – 29 (5) (Appendix, Exhibit A).

3.  Providence Baptist Church School in the Chenango Community was behind the current location of the Providence Baptist Church, County Road 34, according to Mrs. Lola Franklin Moon (born on August 2, 1934). She attended this school for one year before the school was closed in the early 1940s, after which she was bussed to Angleton to school (6). 

4.  Anchor Colored School, a.k.a. Wire Pen, Mrs. Veida W. P. Bates taught at Wire Pen from 1924 until it closed in 1941 (7) (Appendix, Exhibit C).

5.  The Grant School was in McBeth, Texas, located west of the community of Holiday Lakes along the west banks of Oyster Creek off County Road 30. Mrs. Ida Mae Miles Aaron, a former student born June 5, 1933, attended this school for about six years until it closed. The property on which the Grant School was built was donated by Mr. Scipio Grant, an African American landowner (8).  

6.  China Grove School in Rosharon: The Rosharon School site was a four-room building built in 1910 that served first through sixth grades (9). It was located just south of the intersection of Highways 521 and 1462 on County Road 567 (Appendix, Exhibit F).

7.  The Snipe Colored School and Burrel Chapel, Snipe, TX—The Burrel Chapel Program was established in the early 1900s when the Snipe Colored School moved to Angleton, which was too far for Bailey's Prairie students to travel daily. The Burrel Chapel School was a Rosenwald School from 1920 to 1921 (5) (Appendix, Exhibit A).

The establishment of the above schools in the early 1900s showed the undeniable role of the church in the history of African American education in central Brazoria County. Churches were an organized coalescence of a community's hope and their meager financial ability.  They assembled the community's scarce resources and knowledge to provide opportunities to organize educational programs in their segregated communities.

Angleton Independent School District (Angleton I.S.D.), a public school district in Angleton, Texas, was established in 1897 (11) and relocated the Snipe Colored School to Angleton, which became the Colored School in Angleton in the early 1900s. In 1904, Mrs. D. Snow (a white teacher) was the first teacher of record who served well for many years in the Angleton Colored School. During this time, some of Angleton's well-known African American citizens, such as Mrs. Malinda Stewart (Timothy Stewart's mother) and Mrs. Geraldine Lewis, were her students.  In 1923, Rev. Abraham B. Marshall was appointed and served until he died in 1941. During these early years, the school remained a "one teacher" in "one room" at the corner of West Live Oak St. and Thomas J. Wright St. (formerly Cannon St.), Angleton, TX. The one-room building was later expanded into a five-classroom structure with nine grade levels (12) (Appendix, Exhibits D and E).

Rev. Abraham B. Marshall, born near Columbia on December 31, 1872, attended the Houston Independent School District training program for colored teachers. When appointed to teach in Angleton, Professor Marshall was 51 years old. Because of limited teaching opportunities, he served as Pastor — at Mt. Pisgah Baptist Church, McBeth, TX, and Burrell Chapel Baptist Church, Bailey’s Prairie, TX, sold insurance, and started the first African American funeral home in Angleton. He became quite wealthy, with a "fine farm and a great deal of property."   Known as an eloquent speaker. Married Phoebe Woods. (12, 13). Professor Marshall was buried in the Burrell Chapel Cemetery, Snipe, TX.

In 1941, after Professor A. B. Marshall's death, Mrs. Theresa Stewart was named principal, and Mr. Thomas J. Wright assisted her in running the school. Area rural primary school programs—Bailey's Prairie, McBeth, Anchor, Chenango—consolidated with Marshall in 1941 and 1942. Mrs. Veida W. Bates from the Anchor School, Wire Pen, was added, and Angleton Colored School became a school with nine grade levels.

In 1941, Rev. Timothy Stewart, Pastor of Ward Chapel United Methodist Church in Angleton, petitioned the Angleton School Board for a high school for African American students. Until this point, all secondary African American students wishing to graduate high school had to enroll in other programs offering grades ten through twelve. Many of these students moved to Bay City, Galveston, or Houston to complete their high school requirements for a diploma. Almost all African American high schools were in urban centers during this time. Angleton's Board of Trustees responded to Rev. Stewart's request, saying there was no facility to house an African American high school program. Thus, Rev. Timothy Stewart offered his church as the meeting place for the high school. The newly established Angleton Colored High School program met at Ward Chapel until new rooms could be built at the grade school site (16). The high school was renamed Abraham B. Marshall High School in honor of the contributions of the late Professor Marshall to the school (14). 

Timothy Stewart was a United Methodist Church minister employed as a pastor, farmer, bus driver, school janitor, and carpenter to support his family. He only had a fifth-grade education. He and his wife, Malinda McBeth Stewart, had five daughters and three sons. They stressed education, with the older girls living with an uncle in Bay City to attend the 7th and 8th grades and another relative in Houston to finish high school. Timothy Stewart died September 6, 1974 (16).

The significance of establishing Abraham B. Marshall High School addressed a growing and potentially divisive problem in the community. Angleton I.S.D., early in the 20th century, maintained and expanded high school opportunities for its white students but did not provide a separate and equal opportunity for African American students. The existing African American community schools were underfunded, with limited student access to books, libraries, educational resources, and facilities. This unequal education opportunity existed in Angleton I.S.D some 45 years after the U.S. Supreme Court decision of Plessy v. Ferguson on May 18, 1896 (17), which prohibited Angleton I.S.D. from "denying African American students within its jurisdiction the equal opportunity for education as it provided for its white students” (18).

Immediately upon establishing Angleton Colored High School in 1941, African American students from Angleton, Snipe, Bailey's Prairie, McBeth, Anchor, Chenango, Bonnie, Rosharon, and Sandy Point enrolled. African American students from neighboring districts with no African American high school program also enrolled. This emerging school program grew into one of Texas's most extensive rural African American schools and achieved many academic accolades. The far-reaching and comprehensive education program offered by Abraham B. Marshall High School to the central Brazoria County residents would become an asset in future Angleton I.S.D. annexation litigation.

The first Marshall High School Graduating Class—1942—was comprised of the following graduates: Dorothy B. Jackson, Clara M. Johnson, Dorothy M. Jones, Jesse L. Lundy, Ruth T. Lundy, Mary R. Marshall, Preston J. McBeth, Roseatta L. Mucker, and David C. Richardson (Marshall’s 1942 Commencement Program, Appendix, Exhibit F). At the end of the 1941 – 1942 academic year, Mrs. Theresa Stewart resigned, and Mr. Wright became the principal.

Mr. Thomas Jefferson Wright was born on April 17, 1905, in the Cedar Lane Community, Brazoria County, Texas. He received his early education in the schools of Brazoria, the Mims/Jerusalem Community, and later completed his high school education at Booker T. Washington High School, Houston, Texas. He received his Bachelor of Arts degree from Houston Colored Jr. College and Houston College for Negroes, in 1939 and his Master of Arts degree from Prairie View A & M College in 1950. His teaching career spread over several community schools in Brazoria County:  Magnolia Community, Mims Community, Jerusalem Community, and Angleton. Under the leadership of Professor Wright, African American education in Brazoria County blossomed. His motto to every student was, "You can be anything you want to be” (19).

In 1947, Rosharon's China Grove School was consolidated with Marshall. The China Grove campus was maintained to provide housing for a first through sixth-grade program in Rosharon. There were not enough primary-grade classrooms at Marshall. Later, the Booker T. Washington School, Sandy Point, TX, consolidated with Marshall, bringing Mrs. Faye Harris and Mrs. Mary Prescott into Marshall as additional faculty members. Mrs. Faye Harris became the principal of the China Grove School (16).

On March 7, 1940, The Dow Chemical Company bought 800 acres bordering Freeport Harbor at the mouth of the Brazos River. It was January 21, 1941, during World War II, when Dow's new magnesium plant in Texas officially started production (20). Magnesium, a vital element in producing airplanes, was in high demand for the war effort. Dow quickly expanded and drew many workers to live in Angleton and Freeport, TX, to support this war effort. 

This influx of new Dow employees with families caused tremendous growth in the Angleton Independent School District. Attorney Leland Kee, Angleton I.S.D. Board, was instrumental in helping Superintendent Charles Kelso annex the Chocolate Bayou petrochemical complex and the associated ad valorem tax base to accommodate the population growth within Angleton's Schools. This Chocolate Bayou area was rich in oil, gas, and mineral deposits and had a substantial taxable valuation (21).

Alvin and Danbury I.S.D.s litigated this annexation for several years. Surprisingly, a critical factor in Angleton's favor was that Angleton I.S.D. was serving all of central Brazoria County by offering a K – 12 comprehensive education program for African Americans at Abraham B. Marshall High School. Marshall turned out to be the significant factor leading to Angleton I.S.D.'s successful annexation of the resource-rich Chocolate Bayou area and increasing the valuation of the Angleton Independent School District from $13 million in the 1950s to well over $1.7 billion, which would ensure adequate funding for the education of generations of Angleton area school children (21, 22).

Today, the Chocolate Bayou integrated chemical manufacturing complex continues to be approximately 60% of the Angleton I.S.D. tax base and has played a crucial role for decades in funding Angleton schools by generating revenue through ad valorem taxes, business taxes, and fees. The establishment of Abraham B. Marshall High School played a significant role in building a well-endowed tax base for public education in the Angleton Independent School District. The irony is that Marshall never fairly shared the revenue it was instrumental in winning. 

The Marshall High School Gymnasium was built in 1948 (Appendix, Exhibit D and G) (9). Harvey F. Johnson was hired as Marshall’s first qualified coach.  Mr. Willie R. Toles was hired in 1949 and became an outstanding coach known all over Texas for carrying his boys to great heights in football, track, and field events. Vocational Agriculture was organized in 1950, with Mr. Oscar B. Johnson as the first agriculture teacher. Marshall’s curriculum was expanded to include band instruction, and Mr. Leon Hogan served as the first bandmaster. Mrs. Anita J. Caldwell was the first certified Special Education teacher (23).

Abraham B. Marshall High School ranked high in academic and athletic achievements among the rural African American schools in Texas, and its programs experienced tremendous growth during this period. Marshall's assembly of African American professionals and staff inspired hope and promise within the City of Angleton and central Brazoria County. These professionals, under the leadership of Professor Wright and others, contributed materially to the advancement of the African American community. Marshall graduates received better employment prospects, higher incomes, and improved living standards. This economic transformation of African Americans in central Brazoria County helped to break the cycle of African American rural poverty, empowering the community with knowledge, skills, and leadership. The spirit embodied by Abraham B. Marshall, Timothy Stewart, Thomas J. Wright, and Marshall High School inspires the community to strive for higher accomplishments by overcoming complex and challenging roadblocks.

Brown v. Board of Education was a landmark 1954 U.S. Supreme Court ruling that declared the segregation of public schools unconstitutional. In 1955, the courts ordered all school boards to desegregate all public schools (24). This ruling was slow to be implemented in the south. However, numerous national lawsuits and a massive national civil rights movement led by Dr. Martin Luther King and others forced the south into compliance. The bittersweet outcome of this social nightmare eventually led to the demise of the Abraham B. Marshall education program.

A University of Houston (U.H.) study in 1956 reported (Appendix, Exhibit D) that Marshall had nine permanent classrooms and a sizeable steel-frame gym (built in 1948) with an attached stage. The U.H. study reported that three classrooms and the home economics room were in excellent condition. However, concerns were expressed that the ten classrooms that housed about 210 primary students in various temporary wooden structures needed to be improved (9).   The findings in this report led to the design and construction of a steel-framed elementary school structure, which contained seven classrooms, restrooms, a stage with a large common area, and a central cafeteria and kitchen. The Temporary wooden structures were decommissioned and demolished. The new elementary school building was dedicated in 1958 (Dedication Ceremony Program, Appendix, Exhibit F). 

The following are some examples of achievements in excellence that grew out of the Abraham B. Marshall High School program. Charles Frazier, a 1957 graduate, was a football and track star who went on to be on the U.S. International Track Team, which toured the world. Frazier was a member of the World Record 400-meter relay team. Frazier ran the 100-yard dash in 9.4 seconds (Gulf A.A.U. Meet, 1961) and the 220-yard sprint in 20.1 seconds (Southwest Athletic Conference Meet, 1961). He also tried out for the U.S. 1960 Olympics team (25).

Joseph Roberson, a 1957 graduate, attended Tuskegee University. After graduating from Tuskegee, he joined the Air Force and became a pilot and commander of the KC-135 aircraft. He was the first black pilot to fly the FB-111 bomber and retired from the U.S. Air Force as a Lt. Colonel (26). 

The 1959 yearbook showed 22 graduates, and Ray Lundy was the valedictorian. In 1963, Ray received his bachelor's degree from Morehouse College and eventually obtained his medical degree from Meharry Medical College in Nashville, Tennessee, in 1967. Dr. Lundy holds the prestigious accomplishment of being the first African American medical doctor from Brazoria County. Another prominent milestone was his appointment as the first African American physician to hold the office of President of the American Cancer Society in Texas (27).

Elliot Pete Franklin, 1959, was crowned state champion in the shot put. Upon graduating from Prairie View A&M University, he joined the Houston Oilers (28). He was elected to the Prairie View A&M University and Angleton I.S.D. Hall of Fame. 

Emmitt Thomas graduated from Marshall High School in 1961 and Bishop College in 1965. He received the highest pinnacle of National Football League honors—namely the Pro Football Hall of Fame, College Football Hall of Fame, and College Athletics Hall of Fame- and numerous other prestigious awards on and off the field athletically, professionally, and educationally (28).

The 1960 and 1961 Marshall High School track teams won back-to-back state championships.

In March 1962, Marshall High School and Professor Thomas J. Wright hosted the Southern Texas Teachers District Association, at which approximately 600 delegates were in attendance, including some of the best-known names in African American education (29). The Association's mission was to promote quality education for Blacks and good working conditions for Black teachers. This association meeting in Angleton symbolized the status of Marshall High School among the African American Schools in Texas. Professor T. J. Wright was named Outstanding High School Principal in 1963 at the annual Industrial Education Conference at Prairie View A&M College.

Clarence E. Sasser, Class of 1965, was born September 12, 1947, in Chenango, Texas. He was awarded the U.S. Army Congressional Medal of Honor for conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity in action at the risk of his life above and beyond the call of duty, and he served in the Vietnam War as a medic, Company A, 3d Battalion. Under heavy fire, without hesitation, he ran across open rice paddies to assist the wounded in his unit. He was seriously wounded with immobilized legs and heavy loss of blood, but Sasser dragged himself through the mud to treat his wounded comrades. Sasser distinguished himself for extraordinary courage in the line of enemy fire beyond the call of duty (30).

On August 27, 1963, the Angleton I.S.D. Board of Trustees voted to desegregate the Angleton school system. The new desegregation policy allowed students in the first grade to transfer from Negro schools and students from white schools to transfer to Negro schools upon application to the superintendent for transfer. Annually after that, the students could transfer from the next highest grade, and the schools will be desegregated year-to-year" (31). However, this new integration policy was ineffective in integrating the schools of Angleton I.S.D.

July 2, 1964 - President Lyndon Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act (32). The passing of this Act forced schools in the south to integrate by September of 1967. In 1965, the Angleton I.S.D. Board established a second integration policy: "segregation will be abolished in all grades in the Angleton I.S.D. effective September 1, 1965.   Any student may request a transfer from his area to the school of his choice, but those living near the school will have precedence in case of overcrowding” (33). This second policy did not happen as described in the policy as stated above.

The 1966 graduating class was the last to graduate from Abraham B. Marshall High School. At the close of school in 1966, Marshall's high school grade levels were closed. At the start of the 1966 – 67 academic year, all African American students transferred to Angleton High School in the nine to twelve grade levels. Marshall continued to serve the African American Students in grades one to eight. Any Angleton I.S.D. students of any race or color in the first to eighth grades were allowed to transfer to Marshall, and students from Marshall were allowed to transfer to any district school. At the start of the 1967-68 academic year, all grade levels of Marshall were closed. Desegregation of the schools in Angleton officially ended one of the most comprehensive education programs for African Americans in Brazoria County. 

HISTORICAL AND CULTURAL SIGNIFICANCE

The significance of establishing Abraham B. Marshall High School and its predecessor education programs addressed a growing and divisive problem in central Brazoria County. Brazoria County Education District and Angleton I.S.D., early in the 20th century, maintained and expanded education opportunities for its white students but did not provide a separate and equal opportunity for African American students. This unequal education opportunity did not comply with the U.S. Supreme Court decision of Plessy v. Ferguson on May 18, 1896. The Plessy decision prohibited Angleton I.S.D. from denying African American students within its jurisdiction equal opportunity for education as it provided for its white students (17).

Abraham B. Marshall High School and its strategic role in increasing the tax valuation of the Angleton Independent School District by more than 100-fold, from $13 million to $1.7 billion in 1945, has and continues to play a significant role in public education in the Angleton Independent School District for over 75 years (21, 22). This windfall in the tax valuations has afforded the Angleton I.S.D. the privilege and opportunity to grow into a highly academically performing and financially stable public school district that sets it apart from neighboring industry-free districts such as Danbury, Damon, and West Columbia. 

For almost 90 years, from 1879 to 1967, Abraham B. Marshall High School and its predecessor education programs promised hope and opportunity that was a lighthouse to the African American community to navigate the post-slavery and pre-integrated landscape of central Brazoria County. Its impact transformed the rural socioeconomic landscape by advancing education, justice, equal opportunity, and the African American community's general welfare and social agency. Marshall's faculty and staff showed overwhelming support for every student. It was like family. Marshall was a "safe place" where African American youth could dream and sometimes even realize their dreams without suppression and negative judgment. It produced lawyers, medical doctors, health professionals, pharmacists, scientists, engineers, politicians, school administrators, educators, military heroes, superstar athletes, and many law-abiding citizens throughout central Brazoria County. Abraham B. Marshall High School was the most significant 20th-century socioeconomic advancement for African Americans in central Brazoria County.