Founded in the 1920s, the Palacios Colored School was the first African American school in the city. Because of Jim Crow laws that institutionalized segregation, African Americans attended separate schools from white students. After moving twice, the school settled at this site and opened on October 2, 1939. Between 1940 and 1946, the student body grew from 37 to 81 students. When Palacios Independent School District integrated in 1963, the school closed. Open for approximately 40 years, the Palacios Colored School symbolized the African American community's struggle against racial inequality and its dedication to education.