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R E S O L U T I O N
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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 man |
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who can truly be called its founding superintendent; educator |
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William H. Holland was born into slavery, fought in the Union Army's |
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Sixteenth United States Colored Troops, and won election to the |
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Texas House of Representatives in 1876; during his term in office, |
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he sponsored the bill establishing Prairie View A&M University; he |
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later successfully petitioned the legislature to create the school |
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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 of |
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trades, as well as reading, arithmetic, citizenship, and other |
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subjects; in the 1940s, the state closed the Negro Orphan School in |
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Gilmer and transferred its students to Austin, naming the combined |
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campus the Texas Blind, Deaf, and Orphan School; it moved to 601 |
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Airport Boulevard in 1961, and four years later, it was integrated |
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with the Texas School for the Deaf on South Congress Avenue; the |
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Airport facilities became TSD's East Campus, which hosted early |
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childhood and elementary programs until 1989; and |
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WHEREAS, The Texas Blind, Deaf, and Orphan School benefited |
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from numerous gifted educators over the years, among them principal |
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teacher Eliza Holland, wife of Superintendent Holland, art teacher |
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and historian Mattie White, and its last superintendent, J. C. |
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McAdams; alumni Jack H. Hensley, a Gallaudet University graduate, |
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and Mathew Givens, an evangelist, both went on to teach at the |
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school, and following nearly four decades, Mr. Hensley became a |
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director; the many other notable alumni include gospel music |
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pioneer Arizona Dranes, who helped establish churches across |
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Oklahoma and Texas, and Betty Henderson, a national advocate for |
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the deaf; Azie Taylor Morton, the first Black United States |
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treasurer, attended the school in the early 1950s as the daughter of |
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a deaf single mother; following desegregation, Robert Smith became |
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the first Black graduate of the Texas School for the Deaf, and |
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Clarice Brown 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 of |
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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 88th Texas Legislature |
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hereby honor the legacy of the Texas Blind, Deaf, and Orphan School. |