It took decades, but the original L.C. Anderson High School has received recognition from the Travis County Commissioner’s Court for its football team’s 1942, 1956 and 1961 state titles, KVUE reported.
“We call on all the residents of Travis County to celebrate their many victories on the field,” Precinct One Commissioner Jeff Travilion said. “We’re working with a community that believes that when we know our history it makes us strong. It does not diminish us in any way. This is a black history tribute to you.”
The original school, which was located on Austin’s East Side, was the only campus black students could attend in the pre-Civil Rights era.
The state championship teams were never formally recognized and the players never received rings or trophies, KVUE reported. Seven surviving players were given their state title rings recently, the story said.
“A couple of them that I handed rings to got very emotional because they knew that this was something that they had done that nobody knew about except the people in the East Austin community,” Leroy Bookman III, an alumnus of the original L.C. Anderson High School, told KVUE. “Today means a whole lot. You’ve got the old saying, ‘Give me my flowers while I live.’ This is my flower. This is my flower.”
Now Bookman plans to get rings to the families of players who have died, he told the station.
“First of all, it’s part of Austin history, the fact that Anderson won four state championships and played in seven and won 13 district championships,” Bookman said. “And it’s a part of black history because we played in the Prairie View Interscholastic League, which was an all-black league because of segregation.”
