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The Blackshear Elementary School community will celebrate the school's 135th anniversary on Feb. 13.
The historic campus is Austin ISD's first fine arts elementary school in which students participate in dance, theatre and music programming twice a week.
The history
Blackshear Elementary was founded as as School No. 3 in 1891 and became known as the Gregorytown School.
The Gregorytown community was a freedom colony settled by formerly enslaved people amid the Jim Crow and Reconstruction eras following emancipation in Texas, according to the school's homecoming website. Blackshear is one of only a few remaining freedom colony schools that are still open today.
The school's Mr. Friendly R. Rice Garden is named after Friendly R. Rice, who was the principal of Blackshear Elementary for 41 years from 1931 to 1972. Rice created the community garden to relieve Depression Era hardships and started the city's first free hot lunch program. This program became the model for Austin ISD's free lunch program that is now offered at Title I elementary schools.
Blackshear's library—established by Algerene M. Akins Craig in 1934—was one of the first public school elementary libraries in Texas and one of two public libraries in Austin that provided access to Black residents, according to Blackshear information.
Something to note
Next school year, AISD will close Oak Springs Elementary alongside nine additional campuses and relocate students to Blackshear Elementary. Both Oak Springs and Blackshear had an enrollment of less than 230 students each in the 2023-24 school year.
In mid-December, AISD informed parents that Superintendent Matias Segura would decide by late January whether to keep all students at Blackshear or eventually move the merged schools into a modernized $47.6 million campus for Oak Springs. Segura has not yet announced his decision.
Get involved
Parents and community members interested in attending Blackshear's 135th anniversary celebration Feb. 13 may RSVP here. The event is still in the planning stages, according to the website.
