Constructed in 1922, Booker T. Washington High School replaced the older Dallas Colored High School. The student body traces its origins to 1892, when the Dallas Board of Education created the segregated city's first African American high school. During its first 17 years of operation, the often-overcrowded school served every African American student in Dallas County. In 1976, facing court-ordered desegregation, the Dallas Independent School District redesignated Booker T. Washington as a magnet school for artistically gifted students aspiring to future careers in the performing and visual arts.

Watch the following video to learn more about post-emancipation education in Texas' African American communities. This video was produced for inclusion in the African Americans in Texas mobile tour found in our Texas Time Travel Tours mobile app. For more information about the mobile tour and African American cultural heritage in Texas, visit the African American Heritage theme page at the following link: http://texastimetravel.com/travel-themes/main-african-american-heritage