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SENATE RESOLUTION NO. 225
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WHEREAS, The Black History Month celebration at the Texas |
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School for the Deaf on February 24, 2023, provides an ideal |
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opportunity to reflect on the remarkable history of the Texas |
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Blind, Deaf, and Orphan School in Austin; and |
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WHEREAS, Established in 1887 as the Deaf and Dumb and Blind |
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Asylum for Colored Youths, the school was led for 13 years by a |
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man who can truly be called its founding superintendent; educator |
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William H. Holland was born into slavery, fought in the Union |
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Army's Sixteenth United States Colored Troops, and won election |
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to the Texas House of Representatives in 1876; during his term in |
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office, he sponsored the bill establishing Prairie View A&M |
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University; he later successfully petitioned the legislature to |
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create the school for the deaf, mute, and blind; and |
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WHEREAS, The state purchased a 100-acre farm at 4101 Bull |
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Creek Road for the school, which offered instruction in a variety |
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of trades, as well as reading, arithmetic, citizenship, and other |
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subjects; in the 1940s, the state closed the Negro Orphan School |
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in Gilmer and transferred its students to Austin, naming the |
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combined campus the Texas Blind, Deaf, and Orphan School; it |
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moved to 601 Airport Boulevard in 1961, and four years later, it |
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was integrated with the Texas School for the Deaf on South |
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Congress Avenue; the Airport facilities became TSD's East |
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Campus, which hosted early childhood and elementary programs |
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until 1989; and |
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WHEREAS, The Texas Blind, Deaf, and Orphan School |
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benefited from numerous gifted educators over the years, among |
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them principal teacher Eliza Holland, wife of Superintendent |
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Holland, art teacher and historian Mattie White, and its last |
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superintendent, J. C. McAdams; alumni Jack H. Hensley, a |
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Gallaudet University graduate, and Mathew Givens, an evangelist, |
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both went on to teach at the school, and following nearly four |
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decades, Mr. Hensley became a director; the many other notable |
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alumni include gospel music pioneer Arizona Dranes, who helped |
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establish churches across Oklahoma and Texas, and Betty |
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Henderson, a national advocate for the deaf; Azie Taylor Morton, |
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the first Black United States treasurer, attended the school in |
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the early 1950s as the daughter of a deaf single mother; |
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following desegregation, Robert Smith became the first Black |
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graduate of the Texas School for the Deaf, and Clarice Brown |
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became TSD's first Black valedictorian; and |
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WHEREAS, For 78 years, the dedicated faculty of the Texas |
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Blind, Deaf, and Orphan School worked to make the campus a center |
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of Black excellence, providing a quality education that opened |
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pathways of opportunity to their students; now, therefore, be it |
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RESOLVED, That the Senate of the State of Texas, 88th |
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Legislature, hereby honor the legacy of the Texas Blind, Deaf, |
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and Orphan School. |
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Eckhardt |
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________________________________ |
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President of the Senate |
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I hereby certify that the |
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above Resolution was adopted by |
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the Senate on February 28, 2023. |
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________________________________ |
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Secretary of the Senate |
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________________________________ |
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Member, Texas Senate |