Segregated Schools at Manchaca, 1932
During the late nineteenth and much of the twentieth century, schools segregated by race were a fact of life in the southern states, including Texas. This image is a section of a Travis County Engineer Department road map from 1932, and it shows three schools around Manchaca, Texas. The schools are designated as “White,” “Negro,” and “Mex.” While this map is from the 1930s, it depicts the racial segregation of school children that had become well established many decades earlier. The Williams children probably attended the African American school at Manchaca since it was only a couple miles from their farm. Assuming they started going to school around 6 years of age, Will Williams probably started going to school in 1882, and the youngest child, Emma, may have started school about 1898.