1918: Emmett J. Scott High

The record

1. 1918

   Emmett J. Scott High School opens as Tyler’s high school for Black students, named for Wiley College graduate Emmett J. Scott, a Black author, editor and civic leader. Students come from towns such as Chandler that have no high school for them.¹²

2. By 1918

   Tyler has three movie theaters: the Electric Palace and the Queen for white patrons and the Rapeeds Theater for African Americans. The Queen survives as the Arcadia on North Spring Avenue.³

3. 1931 and 1945

   The Pollard nomination says Tyler’s city plans of 1931 and 1945 promoted segregation, recommending that services be withheld from Black neighborhoods near white ones and that Black schools and parks be placed away from white neighborhoods.⁴

4. September 1956

   The Texas attorney general seizes NAACP records and files suit in Tyler to bar the organization from doing business in Texas; the resulting injunction leaves the group nearly dormant.⁵

5. Until 1964

   Restrictive covenants on subdivisions and deeds confine Tyler’s African Americans to parts of central, northwest and southwest Tyler, according to the Tyler MPS, until the Civil Rights Act of 1964.⁶

6. July 15, 1970

   The federal government sues Tyler ISD to desegregate. That July Judge William Wayne Justice rejects the district’s neighborhood-school plan and orders its schools consolidated.⁷

7. 1970

   Emmett J. Scott High closes under the integration order; its students and teachers are sent to John Tyler High School.¹

8. July 8, 1971

   After Black and white students were listed separately on a cheerleader ballot at John Tyler High School, Judge Justice sets up a Bi-Racial Committee for Tyler ISD.⁸

9. August 2016

   U.S. District Judge Michael H. Schneider declares Tyler ISD integrated and dismisses the 1970 desegregation suit.⁹