When I visited Blackshear Elementary School in East Austin, I made the mistake of parking by the back door.
I had to call the front desk and be let in by an administrator who escorted me across the school, but this happy accident allowed me to see it in its entirety. The walls of the fine arts academy were splashed with murals, the halls plastered with student paintings. Handmade stars hung from the ceiling tiles.
Blackshear has a long history that exemplifies the evolution of education for African-Americans in Austin over the last century. It started as a one-room school intended for Black students only and now operates as a public fine arts academy.
Angela Lee, the secretary historian of the school’s Parent-Teacher Association, asked the ATXplained project if Blackshear is the oldest operating elementary school in Austin.
“There’s not been a lot of attention paid to [East Austin],” Lee said. “So many accomplishments have been overlooked. So much history has been lost just because of neglect. … It’s important to me as these structures and these stories evolve and are replaced that they still have a tie to the foundation.”
With Pease Elementary repurposed as a child care center, the simple answer to her question is yes.
Blackshear's origins
The school was built in 1891, a few blocks away from where the current campus sits on 11th Street, to provide free education for Black students in Gregory Town, a freedom colony in segregated East Austin. It was named School #3, Gregory Town School and Gregory School before being renamed Blackshear in 1936 after E.L. Blackshear, a key figure in education for African Americans in Texas.
The original one-room structure quickly outgrew its space. Sydney Landers, who researched the school as a UT architecture student, said the building's state of disrepair led to the construction of an eight-room school a few blocks away in 1903.
In 1936, the school expanded to include 10 more rooms. Many more additions continued until the 1960s, with the newest addition made in the early 2000s.
“Elementary schools are ever-evolving,” Landers said. “They can’t really stay in the exact same building, even if it is historic.”
It’s rare for a freedom colony school to still be standing today, said Andrea Roberts, associate professor of urban and environmental planning at the University of Virginia and founder of the Texas Freedom Colonies Project.
Freedom colonies were small settlements created by formerly enslaved people during the Reconstruction and Jim Crow eras. Roberts said many schools in the freedom colonies closed in the 1930s when New Deal-era policies required equitable funding for Black and white schools — however questionable that attempt was.
Typically, if there weren’t enough Black students to keep a school open, it would close, and students would be integrated to avoid using federal dollars to pay for separate schools.
“So many schools from the … equalization era and the segregation era were either closed or consolidated,” Roberts said. “That does make [Blackshear] special.”
Legacy of Friendy R. Rice
Friendly R. Rice was a trailblazer in education for African Americans and a major figure in Blackshear’s history. He started at Blackshear as assistant principal in 1931, going on to become principal until his retirement in 1972.
Rice earned a bachelor’s degree in education from what is now Prairie View A&M University. He later received a master's in education administration from Columbia University in 1938.
When he came to Blackshear, Rice implemented programs to support low-income students, many of which would stretch beyond the walls of the school. He created the first free lunch program in Austin ISD at Blackshear, according to the Texas State Historical Association. This would later become the norm throughout the district.
Arlene Youngblood, who attended Blackshear while Rice was principal, has extensively researched and written about her former school for the historical association. She called Rice an "innovator."
“He saw the needs that needed to be met and he made sure to take care of those things,” Youngblood said. “He instituted programs that were helpful to the wellbeing of the whole student.”
She said Rice and the rest of her teachers set high standards and encouraged the students to do the best they could.
“Our teachers were professional [and] they taught us their very best,” Youngblood said. “They expected the very best of us and pushed us to excel.”
According to Youngblood, Rice also instituted one of the first public school libraries in an African-American school in the South and hired the first Black woman as librarian for a school in the region, Algerene Craig.
Youngblood said Craig was also the first Black woman to serve on the Travis County Historical Commission. She secured several historical markers for influential Black churches near the elementary school.
“Ms. Craig was a role model for young people to know and have a desire to learn things,” Youngblood said.
Blackshear today
Blackshear is different today, but it hasn’t lost sight of its core values.
The school now serves a diverse range of students, with 78% of the student population coming from minority racial groups.
Blackshear's principal, Tiona Bell, expressed pride in the school’s history and enthusiasm about what it has become and where it's going. She said the school gives students of all racial and economic backgrounds exposure to the arts, providing tools to express emotions, practice critical thinking and collaborate.
Blackshear became a fine arts academy in 2015, one of several in the district. Bell said the district turned schools like Blackshear into fine arts academies to attract more students.
Bell said students are introduced to several disciplines like dance, music, theater and art, and can choose what they want to focus on each semester.
“The arts aspect of our school is very integral to the long-term success of our students,” she said.
Although Blackshear’s population has diversified, class sizes have struggled to grow. Bell said the school contains space for 500 students, but only 210 attended at the end of last year.
Bell said if Blackshear weren't in a unique position as a fine arts school, it might not be open today for simply a lack of students. In fact, she said, 60% of the student population are transfers who come to the school for fine arts.
She said factors like the pandemic and new charter and private schools popping up in the area have affected enrollment.
“We have to find ways to make public education attractive to people who have choices and also to serve people who don’t have choices,” Bell said. “[We need] to make sure the education they’re getting is quality and that they’re being engaged and enriched just like all the other students.”
When asked about the changes at Blackshear since her time as a student — in both curriculum and demographics — Youngblood said it was great. She said the school is doing what schools should always do: bring kids together.
“It’s a sign of progress when people love and know, ‘I’ve got to send my baby to that school,’ whether they’re across town or in town,” Youngblood said. “That lets you know the reputation of the school is good.”
Blackshear also continues to uphold Rice’s legacy of supporting students holistically with new programs that prioritize students’ health.
As a Title 1 school, Blackshear students still receive free breakfast and lunch. The school also partners with Brighter Bites, a nonprofit that brings 20 pounds of fresh produce every two weeks for students and teachers.
Bell said students also learn the science of plants and how to nourish their bodies and minds through an organization called PEAS Gardening, which comes to the school to teach students how to grow and prepare fresh food.
“If they learn [proper nutrition] from a young age and we set a good foundation for them, we’re setting them up for better success in the future,” she said.
The future of Blackshear
Through the partnerships Bell has cultivated, she is propelling the school forward. She said she believes that no matter a student’s background, they deserve a quality education.
Bell said her job is to show up for her kids and serve a purpose much bigger than herself.
“I’m here to make sure Blackshear goes on for the next 30 or 40 years,” she said. “I’m here to lay a solid foundation for our students academically, but for the building and legacy of Blackshear I want to make sure … it gets even greater and bigger.”
Outside, there is a garden called the Friendly R. Rice Garden. In the center of the garden stands a crumbling stone time capsule from 1934. Bell said she doesn't intend to open it.
“I don’t really have any need to open it,” Bell said. “I think the past should stay here as a reminder.”
The capsule reflects Bell's goals. It holds the school’s history, protecting it from the memory loss of time and preserving it for as long as the structure lasts. Meanwhile, bright, young students learn how to create something new.
“I pull a lot of strength from our ancestors and our past,” Bell said. “To know that this land was here in 1934 with only African-American students, and now, it’s celebrated by lots of diverse students in 2024. … that’s a beautiful thing for me.”
