# Victoria Colored School

Part of a series on :
African Americans :
History
Periods
Timeline
Atlantic slave trade
Abolitionism in the United States
Slavery in the colonial history of the US
Revolutionary War
Antebellum period
Slavery and military history during the Civil War
Reconstruction era
Politicians
Juneteenth
Civil rights movement (1865–1896)
Jim Crow era (1896–1954)
Civil rights movement (1954–1968)
Black power movement
Post–civil rights era
Aspects
Agriculture history
Black Belt in the American South
Business history
Military history
Treatment of the enslaved
Migrations
Great Migration
Second Great Migration
New Great Migration :
Culture
Lifeways
Dance
Family structure
Film
Folktales
Music
Musical theater
Names
Neighborhoods
Newspapers
Soul food
Schools
Education during the slave period in the US
Education of freed people during the Civil War
History of African-American education, after the Civil War
Historically black colleges and universities
Fraternities
Academic study
Studies
Art
Literature
Celebrations
Martin Luther King Jr. Day
Black History Month
Juneteenth
Kwanzaa
Economic class
African-American businesses
Middle class
Upper class
Billionaires
Symbols and ideas
African-American beauty
Black is beautiful
Black pride
African-American hair
Good hair
Stepping
"Lift Every Voice and Sing"
Self-determination :
Religion
Institutions
Black church
Theologies
Black theology
Womanist theology
Non-Christian groups
Hoodoo
Black Hebrew Israelites
African-American Jews
African-American Muslims
Nation of Islam
Louisiana Voodoo
African Diaspora Religions :
Politics
Organizations
Congressional Black Caucus
Joint Center
National Black Caucus of State Legislators
National Conference of Black Mayors
Ideologies
Afrocentrism
Anarchism
Back-to-Africa movement
Black power
Capitalism
Conservatism
Garveyism
Leftism
Liberalism
Nationalism
Pan-Africanism
Patriotism
Populism
Radicalism
Socialism :
Civic/economic groups
Organizations
Association for the Study of African American Life and History
Black conductors
NAACP
National Black Chamber of Commerce
National Council of Negro Women
National Pan-Hellenic Council
National Urban League
TransAfrica
UNCF :
Sports
Negro league baseball
Athletic associations and conferences
Central (CIAA)
HBCU (HBCUAC)
Mid-Eastern (MEAC)
Southern (SIAC)
Southwestern (SWAC) :
Sub-communities
Multiethnic
African-American Jews
Afro-Puerto Ricans
Alabama Creole people
Black Indians
Black Seminoles
Mascogos
Blaxicans
Brass Ankles
Creoles of color
Dominickers
Freedmen
Great Dismal Swamp maroons
Melungeon
Carmel Indians
Redbone
Specific ancestries
Americo-Liberians
Creek Freedmen
Gullah
Merikins
Nova Scotians
Samaná Americans
Sierra Leone Creole
Sexual orientation
LGBT community :
Dialects and languages
English dialects
African-American English
African-American Vernacular English
Liberian English
Samaná English
Tutnese
Languages and other dialects
Gullah
Afro-Seminole Creole
Negro Dutch
Black American Sign Language :
Population
US states
Alabama
Arkansas
California
Florida
Georgia
Illinois
Indiana
Iowa
Kansas
Louisiana
Maryland
Mississippi
Nebraska
New York
North Carolina
Ohio
Oklahoma
Oregon
South Carolina
South Dakota
Tennessee
Texas
Utah
Virginia
US cities
Black mecca
List of neighborhoods
Atlanta
Baltimore
Boston
Chicago
Dallas-Fort Worth
Davenport
Detroit
Houston
Jacksonville
Kentucky
Lexington
Los Angeles
New York City
Omaha
Philadelphia
San Antonio
San Francisco
Historic places
District of Columbia
Florida
Georgia
Mississippi
Missouri
Omaha, Nebraska
North Carolina
South Carolina
Texas
West Virginia
Population count
US states and territories
US metropolitan areas
US cities
US communities
Places by plurality of population
Diaspora
Africa
Canada
France
Ghana
Israel
Liberia
Nova Scotia
Sierra Leone :
Prejudice
Racism
Black genocide
Race and ethnicity in the US census
Racism against Black Americans
Reparations for slavery
School segregation in the US
Unarmed African Americans killed by police officers
Stereotypes and media depictions
Blackface
Criminal stereotypes
Hollywood
Magical Negro
Minstrel show :
United States portal
Category
Index :
vte :
Officially named F. W. Gross High School on January 2, 1936, the Victoria Colored School, in Victoria County, Texas, United States, was built in 1901 under authorization of the newly elected school board. The Victoria Independent School District, formed in 1898, chose a design by architect Jules Leffland for the district's second high school, a segregated school for the "coloreds". The Colored School was built at 702 E. Convent Street, in the Diamond Hill area of Victoria, which had been settled by freedmen after the Civil War. The building was next door to the Freedmen's School (built in 1868 by the Freedmen's Bureau of Goliad County), which was turned into a dormitory for teachers of The Colored School.

## Background

Slavery had been illegal in Texas under Mexican rule but, in 1836, with the establishment of the Republic of Texas, slavery was legalized. For the first time, cotton farming in the Victoria area was profitable. The flat, fertile, well-watered, "empty" ranch lands throughout Texas interested cotton growers in the southeast. They began immigrating to Victoria, through the ports of Indianola and Linnville, buying land and bringing slaves with them to work the fields.
Victoria had played a role in the Confederacy. Confederate ports were blockaded by Union troops. The Trans-Mississippi Department of the Confederacy developed a supply line, the Cotton Road, that funneled cotton overland, through Texas, to Matamoros in Mexico. There, the cotton was exchanged for supplies.
Twenty-five years after the legalization of slavery, at the outbreak of the Civil War, slaves equaled more than half of Victoria County's population. The influx of southerners had surpassed the influx of the strict-abolitionist German immigrants, and Victoria County voted overwhelmingly for the succession of Texas.
The war eventually destroyed the market for cotton. Former slaves either became sharecroppers or drifted into the city, establishing a community and social infrastructure. After the war, area leaders wanted to establish schools for African Americans that would channel them into vocational training for the kind of workforce area businesses demanded. Children in grades one to seven attended free, but citizen resistance to free education resulted in students in grades eight through 10 paying a fee until 1906.

## Early leadership

The first principal of the Victoria Colored School was Frederick William Gross (1861–1915), a native of Marshall, Texas, with degrees from several well-known universities. He encouraged literary pursuits and stressed academic performance among the students and, under his leadership the first six years, the school became recognized among black colleges.
In 1907, C.H. McGruder succeeded Gross as principal. By 1920, the enrollment in McGruder's pet program, the Industrial Arts Department, strained the capacity of the school.

## Accreditation

Despite these successes, when the school applied for accreditation as a preparatory school for the state college in 1932, it was denied. It was eventually revealed that a lack of qualified teachers, space, and science equipment had been cited as reasons for the school's failure to gain accreditation. Seven years and federal grants later brought accreditation to the school. The school continued to act as an exclusively black school until 1966.

## Historical status

The building at 702 E. Convent Street no longer serves as a school. On December 9, 1986, the location was certified by the National Register of Historic Places and, in August, 1986, became a Recorded Texas Historic Landmark.