African American Schools
in Dallas
Marion Butts Collection
Dallas Public Library
1946
Booker T. Washington School football team. This school – which
developed from the old Dallas Colored High school – was named in
honor of educator Booker T. Washington. It opened in 1922 at 2501
Flora and the building serves today as the arts magnet high school.
1947
Texas Vocational School. This school operated for a short time
after World War II to provide auto mechanic, furniture repair, and
tailoring training for returning veterans. The building was located at
3922 Willow.
1947
Girl Scout troop 139 in front of the B.F. Darrell Elementary School.
This school was named for Benjamin Franklin Darrell, a Dallas
teacher who also served as a principal at the Dallas Colored High
School. The building at Hall and Fuqua opened in 1891 and closed
in 1969.
1947
Boy Scout troop in front of the B.F. Darrell School. Called the 9th
Ward School when it first opened, the name changed to Dallas
Colored High School In 1893 when high school classes were
added. The school was named for Darrell in 1922.
October, 1947
Pupils of Texas schools take part in a spelling contest
1949
The band and pep squad at Lincoln High School.
Lincoln, Dallas’ second African-American High
School, opened in 1939.
1949
Two football players, nos. 50 and 64, from Lincoln High School.
Lincoln’s Tigers had a reputation as a tough football team.
1949
Bishop College, founded in Marshall, Texas, in 1881, moved to
Dallas in 1961. This photograph shows students in the Bishop
College library in Marshall.
1949
Photographer Marion Butts attended Bishop College in Marshall,
Texas and made a series of photographs of the school. This image
shows students in the Bishop College chemistry laboratory.
1949
Marion Butts Sr. graduating from Bishop College in Marshall,
Texas.
1950
The Rocket Revue of Booker T. Washington High School
February 1950
The 40th Anniversary of the Boy Scouts of America is celebrated
with a flag raising ceremony at Frederick Douglass Elementary
School.
1951
Girls practice cooking in this homemaking class at Lincoln High
School.
1951
Rev. Odom instructing a science class at Lincoln High School
1951
Carrollton Colored School with teacher, Bernice Chatman, and her
class. Chatman taught at the school beginning in the early 1940s
and became principal in the early 1960s. She retired from the
Carrollton-Farmers Branch school system in 1981. In 2004, an
elementary school, the Bernice Chatman Freeman Elementary
School, was named in her honor.
1952
H.S. Thompson School Brownie Troop delivers a Thanksgiving box
to the home of Mr. Jasper Slow.
1952
Exterior photograph of the new addition to Booker T. Washington
High School.
April 1952
The mechanical arts department in the new addition at Booker T.
Washington School. Students are practicing their drafting skills with
a T-square.
1952
Students work in the workshop, part of the new addition to Booker
T. Washington High School.
April 1952
The chemical laboratory in the new addition to Booker T.
Washington High School.
1956
Exterior view of Lincoln High School
1957
Couple shows off their dance moves for an admiring circle of
friends at the Colonial School's Queen's Ball. When the school
opened in 1902, it served white students. In 1957 it became an
African-American school. The school was renamed as the Dr.
Martin Luther King Jr. Learning Center in 1999.
February 1960
Speaking at St. John Baptist Church. Dr. George
Fleming challenges Dallas citizens to raise
campaign funds to bring Bishop College to Dallas.
1961
Children leaving Frederick Douglass Elementary School. First
called the Colored School No. 4 and located at Preston and Grand,
the name of this school was changed in 1902 to honor Douglass,
the great social reformer and abolitionist.
1961
The outhouse “facilities” at the Frederick
Douglass Elementary School.
1961
Bathroom sinks located outside at the Frederick Douglass
Elementary School
January 8, 1961
Moorland YMCA membership campaign breakfast; at far right is
Stone Johnson, a 1960 track and field Olympian and former
Madison High School student.
1962
The Phyllis Wheatley Elementary School building was completed in
1930. It featured fourteen classrooms, a kitchen and lunchroom, an
auditorium, and a clinic.
March 1962
Melvin Manuet, Donnie Garrett, and Deborah Moore show off their
Science Fair projects during Texas Public Schools Week at the
Colonial School.
April 16, 1963
Rotten boards at the outhouse at Eagle Ford Elementary School
January 1963
View from Bonnie Road of Franklin D. Roosevelt High School
under construction. Roosevelt was the first new high school for
African Americans constructed in Dallas since 1939.
1963
The seventh grade class at St. Peter’s Academy included Marion
Butts, Jr., son of the photographer.
1963
Booker T. Washington High School drill team, cheerleaders, baton
twirlers, and drum majors pose in front of the school with their
trophies.
1963
Operetta at St. Peter’s Academy. The Catholic school, located in
1963 at 2018 Allen, offered a quality alternative to the segregated
school system in Dallas.
1965
George Washington Carver Elementary School students in line for
bus. Built to meet demand from baby-boomers born after World
War II, the large West Dallas school opened in 1954.
1969
Faculty at Joseph J. Rhoads Learning Center. This elementary
school was formerly the Lagow Elementary School for whites
located at 4401 Second Ave. It became Rhoads Elementary School
in 1955, the first school in Dallas to change from a “white” to a
“Negro” school as more African American families moved into the
area around Fair Park.
October 15, 1971
The Bishop College marching band and drill team practice at Texas
Stadium in preparation for a game against Texas Southern
University. It was the first time that Bishop played Texas Stadium.
April 10, 1968
Faculty, staff and students walk toward the Bishop College Chapel
and a memorial service for Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.