June 2, 2023
Chris talks with Blackwell School Alliance Board member Daniel Hernandez and Fort Davis NHS Superintendent David Larson about the Blackwell School, Marfa’s segregated school campus which closed in 1965. The school is an unusually well-preserved example of the sort of institution that could be found across the south, both before and after the Supreme Court’s Brown v. Board of Education decision put an end to legal segregation in schools.
The Blackwell School Alliance is a group of alumni and other community members who have acted to save the building from demolition and created a small museum to share the experiences of the students. Since Congress approved the addition of the Blackwell School as a National Historic Site, the National Park Service has begun the long process of working with the community to collect and tell its story.