Despite adverse conditions, African Americans in Texas in the late 19th century worked hard to provide their children with an education. Students in this area attended Mt. Moriah, Boxes Creek, Beulah, Washington Chapel, Union Hope and New Mt. Zion schools. The abbreviated school year allowed children to help their parents during planting and harvest seasons, and most students focused on the basics of reading, writing and arithmetic. In the 1930s, Hattie Jameson of the Mt. Moriah community urged local residents to build a high school for the rural area's African American students. John Henry Sims, born and educated in Mt. Moriah, returned in 1932 after earning a teaching certificate in Kansas. Inspired by Jameson's efforts, he met with Julian P. Greer of the Elkhart Independent School District, and the school board selected a six-acre site for a school building. Community residents razed the old school buildings and brought the lumber for the new construction, which began in 1937. The school, named for its first principal, George H. Henry, opened in January 1938. Students in grades 7-11 met at one end, while the other side housed elementary grades. Students could take basic classes as well as science, history, homemaking, farming and shop. After Henry retired in 1946, H.J. Hurt served as principal. In 1939, the first five students graduated from Henry High School, which remained open until 1963, when it merged into Green Bay High School in Tucker. Elementary classes remained until integration with Elkhart schools in 1967. Since 1980, former Henry High students have met biennially to celebrate their educational roots and the community's historic efforts to provide for its children.