Sam Houston Industrial and Training School

Legislated after the close of the Civil War, the Texas Constitution of 1866 provided for a public school system supported by funds derived from property taxes; monies collected from African Americans would go to schools for their children. Although the law continued to change during the next decades, the primary providers of African American education were the Freedmen's Bureau, churches, missionary associations and philanthropists. Samuel W. Houston (1864-1945) was born in Huntsville to Joshua and Sylvester Houston. His father was a slave and personal bodyguard of former Texas President Sam Houston. His family believed strongly in education, and he earned degrees from the Hampton Institute in Virginia, Atlanta University in Georgia and Howard University in Washington, D.C. He returned to Huntsville in 1900 and established a newspaper. He then taught in Grimes County and at the Huntsville Community School before establishing a school circa 1906 near here in what was the Galilee community. The Sam Houston Industrial and Training School began in the Galilee Methodist Church, which Houston rented for the classes. He soon added teachers and programs, offering vocational curriculum as well as the arts and humanities. Trustees built the first schoolhouse in 1914 and continued to add facilities, including dormitories and workshops. By 1930, the school served hundreds of students from around the state. That year, the Sam Houston school merged into the Huntsville Colored School, which became Sam Houston High School. It closed in 1968 due to integration. The foundation set by Houston and other early educators ensured the education of generations of African American students in the 20th century.