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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, choose 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.〔The Victoria Advocate, "10 things you may not know about area black history." (Originally published January 31, 2012 at 8:24 p.m., updated January 31, 2012 at 11 p.m. )〕 ==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.〔Clegg, Robert E., Victoria County Historical Commission, and Texas State Historical Association (2008). ''The History of F.W. Gross High School, Victoria, Texas 1902-1966: (Formerly Called "Victoria Colored School")'', Victoria, TX: Victoria County Historical Commission.〕 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.〔Glasrud, Bruce A., Larry P. Knight, and Cary D. Wintz (2011). ''African Americans in South Texas History''. College Station, TX: Texas A&M University Press. ISBN 978-1603442282.〕 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.〔Hammonds, Terry (1999). ''Historic Victoria: An Illustrated History.'' HPN Books.〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Victoria Colored School」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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