LC Anderson High School
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SAVING THE GOOD STUFF Summer 2017 h Volume 21 No. 3 Separate but Equal in Austin: L.C. Anderson High School by Rebekah Dobrasko he old Anderson High School building sits atop a small hill at 900 Thompson Street in East Austin, just east of Pleasant Valley Road. This building, constructed in 1953, is the fourth to house L.C. Anderson High School, Austin’s only high school for African American students during the era of segregation. The school is significant not only as Austin’s historic black high school. The building itself reflects the social context of the growing American population after World War II, the fight to maintain segregation in schools by building new black schools to be “separate but equal,” and national trends in school The former Anderson High School, main entrance today planning and school design. It is still owned by the Austin Independent School District Learning Center and as the East Austin designations. The school is outside the (AISD), used as the district’s Alternative headquarters of the Boys and Girls Club. boundaries of the city’s recent East Austin AISD’s recent facilities master planning Historic Survey. Photo courtesy of Austin History Center, APL process targets the old Anderson High School The first high school for Austin’s black for redevelopment students opened in 1889 in a small one- for new educational room building on the corner of San Marcos purposes. Preservation Street and East 11th Street. By 1908, the Austin intends to keep school district constructed a new frame an eye on AISD’s plans high school on Olive Street. The third for old Anderson, and is Anderson High School building, named working with the alumni after educators E.H. and L.C. Anderson, association and AISD to opened in 1913 on Pennsylvania Avenue erect a historical marker and Comal Street. The Olive Street school at the school and to became an elementary school until it closed in the late 1940s due to declining Science classroom in 1955 pursue other historic Continued on page 3 SAVE THE DATE History Hunt in Blue Bonnet Hills 2016-2017 Board of Directors Saturday, June 24 (postponed from May) 9 – 11 a.m. FREE, RSVP required h EXECUTIVE COMMITEE h Blunn Creek Greenbelt, check-in near the intersection John Donisi, President Vanessa McElwrath, 1st VP of East Side & Lockhart Drives Ken Johnson, President-Elect Richard Kooris, 2nd VP Clay Cary, Treasurer Looking for some family fun now that school’s out? Join us for Samantha Davidson, Secretary our annual History Hunt in Travis Heights’ Blue Bonnet Hills! Alyson McGee, Immediate Past President This architectural scavenger hunt engages K-5 aged children and their families in learning about Austin’s historic neighborhoods. h BOARD MEMBERS h This year’s event, presented with the South River City Citizens Clayton Bullock Ann Graham Michael Strutt Neighborhood Association, will be our first in South Austin. Families Richard Craig Chris Hendel Lance Stumpf Tara Dudley Lori Martin Matt Swinney will follow clues to (top secret) stops throughout Blue Bonnet Hills, Lauren Smith Ford Dennis McDaniel Caroline Wright learning about architectural elements and the neighborhood’s Eileen Gill Dewitt Peart history along the way. Sack races, hula hoops, and other activities will abound. Refreshments will be provided at the finish line, where h REPRESENTATIVES h prizes will be awarded to the race champions. Michael Holleran, UT School of Architecture Charles Peveto, Austin History Center THIS EVENT IS FREE! All children must have an adult chaperone. Michelle Slattery, Inherit Austin RSVPs to Programs Coordinator Lindsey Derrington at programs@ Bob Ward, Travis County Historical Commission preservationaustin.org are required by Thursday, June 22. h BENEFACTOR h Prizes provided by Terra Toys, P. Terry’s Burger Stand, Amy’s Ice Tim Cuppett & Marco Rini Creams, Lucy in Disguise with Diamonds and Home Slice Pizza. McBee Family Foundation (Robert F. McBee, President) Sponsored by: h WATERLOO CIRCLE h Paula & Lee Aaronson Richard & Laura Kooris Booth Heritage Foundation Lori Martin & Stacey Fellers (Suzanne Deal Booth) Peter Flagg Maxson & John Taylor Clayton Bullock Dennis & Jill McDaniel Robert & Mimi Buzbee Vanessa & Mac McElwrath Clayton & Karen Cary Alyson McGee & Mark Wolfe Kent & Reenie Collins Emily Moreland Richard Craig George & Carole Nalle, III Presented by Preservation Austin and the South River City Sam & Ty Davidson Carol Nelson John Donisi & Gina Hinojosa Patrick & Julie Oles, Jr. Citizens Neighborhood Association. h Tara Dudley Mary Paver Dillon & Cissie Ferguson Dewitt & Jane Peart William & Regan Gammon Charles Aubrey Smith, Jr. h STAFF Eileen Gill & Kevin Pruitt Michael Strutt Ann S. Graham & Arlen Johnson Lance & Alyson Stumpf Kate Singleton, Executive Director Tom & Elizabeth Granger Matt & Kara Swinney Lindsey Derrington, Programs Coordinator Susan Cope Griffith & Linda Team & Lewis Donelson Curtis Fuelberg Jill & Stephen Wilkinson Mailing Address - P.O. Box 2113, Austin, TX 78768 Chris & Abby Hendel Patricia Winston & Bill Head Physical Address - 500 Chicon, Austin, 78702 Meta Butler Hunt Marvin & Eva Womack Ph. (512) 474-5198 Fax (512) 476-8687 Ken Johnson Caroline Wright www.preservationaustin.org [email protected] 2 Spring 2017 Anderson High, continued from page 1 enrollment and poor building conditions. That school later burned. The Comal Street school building became Kealing Junior High School when the “new” Anderson High School opened in 1953. That building burned in the 1980s, although Kealing Middle School still remains at the site. The 1953 Anderson High School is one of only a few schools remaining to tell the story of black public education in the Capital City. The late 1940s and early 1950s were a time of great growth and change in APL Photo courtesy of Austin History Center, 1913 Anderson High at 1167 Comal Austin. Soldiers, both black and white, segregation was, in fact, illegal. The NAACP Austin architectural firm Kuehne, Brooks, returned from fighting overseas and began unveiled this argument in Sweatt v. Painter, and Barr. The new school had a modern settling down and starting families. AISD its landmark 1950 Supreme Court case to design, with a flat roof, banks of aluminum planned for new schools to accommodate desegregate the University of Texas Law windows that allowed light and air into student body growth. Austin needed new School. the classrooms, and a modern heating white high schools to serve the growing system. It had twenty-five classrooms, populations in the south (William B. Austin’s Negro Citizens Council pressured including spaces for art, music, science, Travis High), north (McCallum High), the AISD for better schools and better home economics, business, and industrial and west (O. Henry Junior High) sides of equipment. A study showed that Anderson classes. A new cafeteria held state-of-the- the city. However, since East Austin was High needed new buildings, improved art food equipment, and a gymnasium and the segregated portion of the city for lighting, lockers, bathrooms on each floor, football field on the campus led to the 1953 African Americans, it planned for a larger and a larger cafeteria. Anderson High Anderson campus becoming a true center black high school only in the east. At was the last AISD school to rely on coal of Austin’s African American community. the same time, the National Association for heating. One former teacher recalled for the Advancement of Colored People her science classroom equipment: “an old Anderson High is significant as an intact (NAACP) began a sustained legal fight Bunsen burner, some rocks, and a tuning example of the mid-century modern for equalization between black and fork.” The school’s athletic fields were school. Schools similar in appearance to white schools in the South. This legal about ten blocks away from the Anderson were built across Austin and fight quickly moved to an argument that school itself. As a result of the push to across the nation. These were mostly Photo courtesy of Austin History Center, APL desegregate schools, white built out of concrete and brick, as steel politicians and school districts was still in short supply after World War across the South began II. AISD had to get federal Department of upgrading and building new Education approval to use 273 tons of steel black schools. Historians call in Anderson High. Ultimately, Anderson these “equalization” schools. High School cost a little less than $900,000 The 1953 Anderson High School to build. It was expanded again by six was an equalization school. classrooms in 1959. In 1948, AISD purchased a 22- Amid the new school planning swirled acre site for a new Anderson controversy over the segregation of High School designed by students in the public school system. Y-Teens Club in 1955 Continued on page 4 PRESERVATION AUSTIN 3 Photo courtesy of Austin History Center, APL Anderson High, continued from page 3 center of the East AISD and local officials were not blind to Austin community. Sweatt v. Painter playing out in court. The Teachers lived in the courts directed states to equalize their community, attended schools or to admit black students. While church alongside these equalization and desegregation their students, orders first occurred at the college level, and knew the local public school districts knew that parents. The school elementary and secondary schools were provided leadership next. opportunities for teachers, coaches, African American leadership in Texas and administrators prepared to file lawsuits demanding that were not Cafeteria in 1955 equalization. So, after decades of African available in Austin’s School played out across the South. Stay Americans pushing for updated schools white schools. Everyone in East Austin tuned for the Preservation Austin Fall 2017 sufficient to hold all students, new attended the same high school, cheered newsletter to learn why Anderson High equipment, new books, and amenities for the same teams, and had the School is now located in northwest Austin like cafeterias and gymnasiums, school same traditions.