Early African American citizens of Woodville educated their children in local churches and Masonic halls well into the twentieth century. Efforts to develop a better public school system for the students began with the leadership of educator Henry T. Scott, a native of Tyler County who trained at Prairie View State Normal and Industrial College, taught in Beaumont, and moved to Woodville as a teacher in 1910. There he worked to raise funds for a new school, and in 1934 a six-room school named for him opened on Elm Street, now Martin Luther King Drive, only two years before his death. The school saw its greatest early growth under Principal John K. Canada, who took the post in 1947, set high standards for students and curriculum, and led enrollment from fewer than 100 students to more than 500. As the school expanded and added new programs, Canada worked with Superintendent B.H. McGuire and district officials to plan a larger campus on this site, which was purchased in 1959, and the new school opened for the academic year in 1961. Henry T. Scott School became an important institution in Woodville, and its graduates included many people accomplished in their professions and prominent in community activities. The school closed in the late 1960s as a result of integration, and the main building burned in 1980. An active alumni association preserves the memory of the school and of Henry T. Scott, both revered in the history of Tyler County.