The following two part series is written by 2023 Preservation Scholars Algae Guzman and Lauren Huffmaster. Go to Part 2.

Mexican schools, often called “Americanization” schools, were established to help assimilate Mexican Americans into Anglo American culture. The schools relied on practices like the banning of Spanish language on school grounds, lessons on American culture, and mandatory patriotic demonstrations, such as pledging loyalty to the American flag.

These schools were segregated educational institutions for Hispanic students only, established in Texas and throughout the American Southwest from the 1880s through the mid-1960s. Although founded under the guise of educating students who did not speak English, few schools actually tested English literacy opting to automatically enroll any student with a Spanish-sounding last name.

In the years following Texas' independence from Mexico in 1836, Mexican citizens were allowed to apply for Texas citizenship. By categorizing Mexicans as racially White, Texas could effectively restrict citizenship to Whites only and prevent freed African Americans from obtaining citizenship. However, due to insufficient documentation, many Mexican citizens were still denied status as Texans.

A century later, as segregationist policies were being publicly condemned in the United States, the existence of Mexican schools received far less national coverage as a result of being deceptively categorized as White schools.

In 1947, even after a high court found that separation "within one of the great races" was not permitted and segregation of Mexican American children, who were considered Caucasian, was illegal, such separation could be pedagogically justified by scientific language tests applied to all students.

In 1948, Mexican schools became illegal as a result of the ruling in Delgado vs. Bastrop ISD, but school policies continued to lean on such language tests to discriminate against Hispanic students. In the 1970s, several landmark lawsuits were aimed squarely at discriminatory enrollment practices carried out in the name of bilingual and dual-language education in the state of Texas.

Since these institutions weren't ever formally acknowledged at the time of their existence, little documentation of them exists; however, it is estimated that, during the 1940s, at least 122 school districts in Texas established Mexican schools.

The Blackwell School operated in Marfa as a segregated school for children of Mexican descent from 1909 until Marfa schools were integrated in 1965.

Unlike most Mexican schools across the country, Blackwell's enrollment included kindergarten through 8th grade, where thereafter students transferred into integrated schools (or stopped their education if integration wasn't enforced).

Blackwell also provided its students with extracurricular activities, which was uncommon in other Mexican schools across the state, most of which were poorly funded. Surprisingly, many schools, including Blackwell, provided free lunch.

School lessons were taught in English, even if students didn't know the language. In interviews, former Blackwell students recalled a troubling school tradition involving the ceremonial burial of their native language. Students were made to write a letter in Spanish and place their letters in a coffin-shaped box. The box was buried and a funeral was held for 'Mr. Spanish.' If students were caught speaking Spanish after this funeral, they were paddled as punishment. In other parts of Texas, students in violation of the English-only rule were forced to go outside and pick rocks off the ground.

In 2007, on the second anniversary of the Blackwell School's conversion into a local museum, former students and community members gathered to symbolically exhume Mr. Spanish.

Marfa's Hispanic community has continuously fought to keep their experiences from being dismissed as a mere spectacle of the past. Thanks to their efforts, Blackwell School has been preserved and is one of the last remaining buildings in the U.S. associated with a Mexican school.

After Blackwell's closure, some school buildings were repurposed into community spaces, while most were fully abandoned, fell into desolation, and were subsequently torn down. In 2006, when the Harper Building, the only extant structure of Blackwell School's campus, was set to be demolished, a coalition of former students banded together and created the Blackwell School Alliance with the purpose of rehabilitating the building. They petitioned the local school district and were ultimately granted a 99-year lease from Marfa Independent School District...all for the price of one dollar.

With the support of the Marfa community, the Blackwell School was converted into a museum, acknowledging the importance of preserving the school's legacy. In 2022, President Biden designated the school a National Historic Site.

The site's online archive contains oral histories conducted with former students and images of school artifacts. Visitors to the the Blackwell School museum can interact with the material archive, which includes photographs, yearbooks, sports trophies, and more.

VISIT BLACKWELL SCHOOL