Exhibition Introduction - Learning the Classics in Austin

In early twentieth-century Austin, Black schools actively worked to make Latin and Greek accessible to students at all levels. Black students read Vergil, Xenophon and Horace as part of a broader project of Black education and community-building. As everywhere in the nation, Austin schools, too, were caught up in the political struggle around desegregation, changing the educational landscape in the city and with it students’ access to different subjects.