Houston, born a slave, an educational pioneer

Samuel Walker Houston was born a slave near the end of the Civil War on President Lincoln’s birthdate, Feb. 12, 1864, at Huntsville to Joshua and Sylvester Baker Houston. They were slaves of the Republic of Texas’s first president, Sam Houston.

Slave Joshua Houston was gifted to Sam Houston’s wife, Margaret, at the time of their marriage on May 9, 1840.

Young son Samuel has an early Grimes County history. He was a teacher at the Red Hill African American school located in the very southwest section of the county in the Retreat area on County Road 412 off Farm to Market Road 362. Only the Pleasant Hill African American Baptist church stands there now.

Young Samuel was inspired by his father Joshua’s career of serving as a Walker County commissioner following emancipation and was also intrigued by Booker T. Washington. He matriculated first in Virginia, followed by the Atlanta University in Georgia and on to Howard University in Washington, D. C. While in Washington, D. C. he worked for 5 years as a Navy clerk “honing’ administrative skill.” He became considered as an “intellectual elite.”

In 1903 young Samuel returned to Texas, first teaching at the above-mentioned Red Hill school. At that time, he also established and published a local newspaper, the Huntsville Times. By 1906, he founded the Galilee Community School at Huntsville. It was the first Texas first-12th grade school for African Americans. The land was donated by the Melinda and Sanford Williams family.

It later became known as the Houstonian Normal and Industrial Institute and later as the Samuel W. Houston Industrial and Training Institute in Walker County located on Highway 30. Vocational skills were taught as well as fine arts classes. Over time, funding from the community as well as substantial grants from the Julius Rosenwald Fund led to the construction of two dormitories housing up to 400 boys and girls.

By 1930 this Institute was consolidated into the Huntsville Independent School District with young Houston named supervising principal over nine Walker County schools that included the Samuel W. Houston High School for African Americans.

A Baptist as well as a Republican, young Houston served on the advisory committee for the National Republican Organization in 1928 as well as attending the national Republican convention. He also served as a field secretary for the Texas Commission on Inter-Racial Cooperation and was vice president of the Teachers State Association of Texas.

The list goes on as he was a member of the Southern Sociological Congress, the National Association of Teachers in Colored Schools, the National Association of Applied Psychology and the National Travel Club. He also was on the Young Men’s Christian Association’s state executive committee and a director for the Texas Centennial Exposition in Dallas in 1936.

He married Hope Harville, a fellow teacher, at Huntsville on April 28, 1915. They had three children. In 1944 he addressed a graduating Huntsville class stating, “True humility is a necessary quality for one who would be successful in the accomplishment of a great task … as well as courage whether there is a visible majority with him or not.”

He died at the age of 81 Nov. 19, 1945 and was buried in the Huntsville Oakwood Cemetery where his Father Joshua and namesake General Sam Houston are also buried.

Written by Betty Dunn, Two Rivers Heritage Foundation. See www.tworiversheritagefoundation.org for more information and membership.