Booker T. Washington spoke here in 1911, at the outset of the Mexican Revolution. In 1883 Andrew Morelock and the growing African American community in the El Paso area created a private school named Douglas School after Fredrick Douglas to fill the needs for the growing African American population. After the school closing in the late 1880s due to lack of financial aid, the El Paso Public School board of Trustees expanded their campuses to include a facility for African American students in 1883, on 4th and Kansas. (Campbell 1945) William Coleman was born in Georgia and was married to Emma Coleman.
