The Texas Historian, Volume 59, Number 4, May 1999 Page: 1
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Fred Douglass High School:
HOME OF THE MIGHTY DRAGONS
By Ashley N. Wallace, Jacksonville Middle Schoolf you are able to read this pa-
per, you should thank a
teacher. Reading definitely
enriches one's life. Can you
imagine life without reading
skills? Frederick Douglass knew
the importance of education. Al-
though Mr. Douglass was born in one
of the darkest periods of slavery on a
plantation in Maryland, his life's am-
bition to learn how to read was ful-
filled. At age eight, two years after his
mother died on a neighboring estate,
young Douglass was sent to live with
the Auld family. "Not knowing it was
against the law, Mrs. Auld gave him
reading lessons. Her husband scolded
her when he found out, causing her to
stop her literacy crusade. Douglass
continued his lessons on his own,
grabbing notes or any piece of paper
with writing on it to teach himself. In
fact, he took his last name (Douglass)from a character in the novel Marmion
by Sir Walter Scott."'
In 1845 Frederick Douglass pub-
lished his autobiography, Narrative of
the Life ofFrederick Douglass. Two years
later, he founded an anti-slavery news-
paper, The North Star. His other liter-
ary works include Frederick Douglass'
Paper, My Bondage and My Freedom,
and The Life and Times of Frederick
Douglass. These works stimulated
black scholarship, created an audi-
ence for slave narratives, and increased
black literary and historical works.
Mr. Frederick Douglass played such
an active role in African-American
history that the black citizens of Jack-
sonville, Texas decided to name a
school in his honor. The first school
forNegro children inJacksonville was
located on the corner of Kickapoo
and Washington Streets on the north
side of town. In the early 1900s theschool was moved to N. Ragsdale
Street. It was then known as "The Red
School House." The school was a three-
room, frame building with wood-
burning stoves. Mr. G.W. Crouch
served as principal until mid-term of
1921, after which Mr. J. H. Howard
became the new principal. In the same
year, the Red School burned and was
reconstructed under the guidance of
Principal Howard, who retired after
its completion.2
In 1923, Mr. M.B. Davis was elected
principal of the new school. Under
his administration the teaching staff
was increased from five to eight teach-
ers, and the school became a high
school. The school was later located
on Elberta Street (now Martin L. King)
and named Fred Douglass.3 In 1930
Fred Douglass School was moved to
the Lincoln Park Addition. The new
school included an auditorium ca-
pable of seating four hundred stu-
dents, twelve classrooms, a principal's
office, and secondary grades.4
In later years, the school was en-
larged and modernized, and the el-
ementary grades were moved back to
the Elberta Street School. Mr. H.V.
Jones was elected principal of Fred
Douglass High School in 1956. In
1970, the school system was inte-
grated and the Fred Douglass High
School building housed Special Edu-
cation students and sixth graders."
Before the integration of schools,
Jacksonville, like many other towns,
had separate schools for black and
white students. Through interview-
ing numerous townspeople, I discov-
ered many interesting things. In an
interview with Mr. B.T. Finley and his
wife, Mrs. Doris Finley, they stated
that the student body of the all-black
high school was approximately 500
for grades 7-12. They also felt the
teachers had freedom to teach the
way they wanted because they were not
bound bystate mandates. Aformerteach-
er at Fred Douglass, Mrs. Finley said,May 1999 / 1
Ashley Wallace (right) and her uncle, Steve Scott, hold
a Frederick Douglass High School letter-jacket.
Photos courtesy the author.
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Texas State Historical Association. The Texas Historian, Volume 59, Number 4, May 1999, periodical, May 1999; Austin, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth391426/m1/3/?q=waco+tornado&rotate=270: accessed July 16, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Texas State Historical Association.