Bill Text: TX SR225 | 2023-2024 | 88th Legislature | Enrolled
Bill Title: Recognizing the celebration of Black History Month at Texas School for the Deaf.
Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Democrat 1-0)
Status: (Passed) 2023-02-28 - Reported enrolled [SR225 Detail]
Download: Texas-2023-SR225-Enrolled.html
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| WHEREAS, The Black History Month celebration at the Texas | ||
| School for the Deaf on February 24, 2023, provides an ideal | ||
| opportunity to reflect on the remarkable history of the Texas | ||
| Blind, Deaf, and Orphan School in Austin; and | ||
| WHEREAS, Established in 1887 as the Deaf and Dumb and Blind | ||
| Asylum for Colored Youths, the school was led for 13 years by a | ||
| man who can truly be called its founding superintendent; educator | ||
| William H. Holland was born into slavery, fought in the Union | ||
| Army's Sixteenth United States Colored Troops, and won election | ||
| to the Texas House of Representatives in 1876; during his term in | ||
| office, he sponsored the bill establishing Prairie View A&M | ||
| University; he later successfully petitioned the legislature to | ||
| create the school for the deaf, mute, and blind; and | ||
| WHEREAS, The state purchased a 100-acre farm at 4101 Bull | ||
| Creek Road for the school, which offered instruction in a variety | ||
| of trades, as well as reading, arithmetic, citizenship, and other | ||
| subjects; in the 1940s, the state closed the Negro Orphan School | ||
| in Gilmer and transferred its students to Austin, naming the | ||
| combined campus the Texas Blind, Deaf, and Orphan School; it | ||
| moved to 601 Airport Boulevard in 1961, and four years later, it | ||
| was integrated with the Texas School for the Deaf on South | ||
| Congress Avenue; the Airport facilities became TSD's East | ||
| Campus, which hosted early childhood and elementary programs | ||
| until 1989; and | ||
| WHEREAS, The Texas Blind, Deaf, and Orphan School | ||
| benefited from numerous gifted educators over the years, among | ||
| them principal teacher Eliza Holland, wife of Superintendent | ||
| Holland, art teacher and historian Mattie White, and its last | ||
| superintendent, J. C. McAdams; alumni Jack H. Hensley, a | ||
| Gallaudet University graduate, and Mathew Givens, an evangelist, | ||
| both went on to teach at the school, and following nearly four | ||
| decades, Mr. Hensley became a director; the many other notable | ||
| alumni include gospel music pioneer Arizona Dranes, who helped | ||
| establish churches across Oklahoma and Texas, and Betty | ||
| Henderson, a national advocate for the deaf; Azie Taylor Morton, | ||
| the first Black United States treasurer, attended the school in | ||
| the early 1950s as the daughter of a deaf single mother; | ||
| following desegregation, Robert Smith became the first Black | ||
| graduate of the Texas School for the Deaf, and Clarice Brown | ||
| became TSD's first Black valedictorian; and | ||
| WHEREAS, For 78 years, the dedicated faculty of the Texas | ||
| Blind, Deaf, and Orphan School worked to make the campus a center | ||
| of Black excellence, providing a quality education that opened | ||
| pathways of opportunity to their students; now, therefore, be it | ||
| RESOLVED, That the Senate of the State of Texas, 88th | ||
| Legislature, hereby honor the legacy of the Texas Blind, Deaf, | ||
| and Orphan School. | ||
| Eckhardt | ||
| ________________________________ | ||
| President of the Senate | ||
| I hereby certify that the | ||
| above Resolution was adopted by | ||
| the Senate on February 28, 2023. | ||
| ________________________________ | ||
| Secretary of the Senate | ||
| ________________________________ | ||
| Member, Texas Senate | ||
