Cooking Class Douglass High School - El Paso, Texas

Photograph - Students and teacher in a cooking class at Douglass High School in El Paso, Texas. Like a tree, we all need a place to grow and branch out," said Sallie Berry Johnson recently, referring to Douglass School, the only school she and other blacks could attend in El Paso until the mid-1950s. The first school for blacks had only seven students and was opened in March 1883 in the home of John Smith. Andrew Morelock was both principal and teacher. The school was given the name of "Douglass School" in tribute to Frederick Douglass, a well respected statesman and orator and one of the country's strongest abolitionist. After two and a half years, this small school closed down after encountering financial problems, but in the spring of 1886, the trustees of the public school of El Paso broadened their educational program to include black children. The board made plans to construct a four-room brick building at Fourth Street and Kansas. In order for the children to start school on time, an adobe shack on Second and Oregon Street was used. Although this temporary site featured only rough chairs and tables, the atmosphere did not affect the attitudes of the black children towards school. Children learned reading, writing and arithmetic. http://epcc.libguides.com/content.php?pid=309255&sid=2626317

Creator: Douglass Elementary

Area: Central / South Central