EDUCATION FOR ALL

In the America of the early 1900s, elementary education was readily available and, for the most part, expected for children of Anglo parents. New schools, textbooks, and supplies were considered necessities, not privileges. However, the realities surrounding education for the country’s African American children were quite different. But educator Booker T. Washington and philanthropist Julius Rosenwald determined to change that reality by creating and managing a fund to finance a rural school building program for educating African American children across the nation. The series of schools became known as the Rosenwald Schools. The Calvert School, located in the Brazos Valley community of Calvert and now known as the W. D. Spigner Elementary School, was the largest Rosenwald School in Texas when construction was completed in 1929. The town restored the school building as the W.D. Spigner Elementary School and the school continued to operate until 2010. Today, the Calvert Colored W.D. Spigner Alumni Association Inc. operates the building as a neighborhood multipurpose center.

Watch the following video to learn more about Rosenwald Schools in Texas. 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