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Neighbors reflect as Calvert Colored High School prepares for Historic Marker

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CALVERT, Texas (KRHD — Over the weekend, a dedication ceremony was held in Calvert, TX to honor the Calvert Colored High School as a recorded Texas Historic Landmark.

  • Calvert Colored High School was built in 1929.
  • It was renamed W.D. Spigner High School in 1961.

BROADCAST TRANSCRIPT:

"Calvert is important, education is important and right here in the, you know, the small town of Calvert, Texas, you know, everyone is looking and important things happen here," Professor of Black Studies, Myeshia Babers said.

W.D. Spigner High School - as it's called now - has been a piece of Calvert's history for almost a century.

"The stories that my mom told me about my grandmother and how she and her siblings integrated the schools during integration," Babers said.

Over the weekend the once largest Rosenwald School in Texas was recognized as a historic landmark.

15ABC spoke to some neighbors in Calvert that attended W.D. Spigner High School, back when it was called Calvert Colored High.

"It deserves a recognition because, believe it or not, a lot of people in this town don't even know the significance of this particular school," former student, Sheryl Chopp said.

"A lot of these young people that are here, their grandparents, their great-grandparents, their great-great-grandparents, yeah, they helped build this school," class of 1962 alumni, Addie Dixon said.

They shared so many memories with 15ABC.

"I didn't know that in the first grade that I went to a color school," Chopp said.

And what they hope the future generations will get from this historic landmark.

"These children here now, they don't realize that they came from greatness as far as I'm concerned," Dixon said.

Myesha Babers was the neighbor who pushed for this school to be recognized.

And told 15ABC the memories of this school is what she hopes to hold on to most.

"Memories, memories fade right with time," Babers said.

"We have to preserve the school, we have to collect the stories from the alumni who are still with us," she said.