One hundred years ago, Northside residents built a new school named for the man who brought education to Corpus Christi’s Black children, Solomon M. Coles.
The school educated generations of Black children from across the wider Corpus Christi area, including those who lived in communities where there was no school for Black students. Over the years, the school produced students renowned for their academic, musical and athletic talents. The building has served as a centerpiece for the neighborhood, hosting celebrations, meetings and cultural events.
Coles began teaching local children shortly after his arrival in Corpus Christi in 1877. He founded and led the area’s first school for Black children.
Solomon Coles Elementary School was designated a historical site February 1979.
Over the generations, his legacy has endured and the community has continued to build upon the foundation of education he instilled, naming a new school building after Coles in 1925.
On Sept. 12, community members and alumni gathered to celebrate a century of history at the school now known as Solomon M. Coles High School and Education Center. It has transformed over the years from a high school to an elementary school and now is an alternative high school.
At the start, close to 80 students showed up on the first day of school in 1925, according to Corpus Christi Caller archives.
In the 1930s, the school’s choral and band groups earned local acclaim. One 1935 column entreated readers not to miss the “soulful” music of the school’s spiritual choir, promising “musical insomnia.”
“During the past two years this group of negro school boys and girls has gained a wide reputation for its soulful singing of old time negro spirituals and folk songs,” another 1935 Corpus Christi Times article reported. “Some of the richest and smoothest voices ever heard in Corpus Christi are in the chorus and those who have heard them on previous occasions are enthusiastic in their praise.”
About 15 years later, a Corpus Christi Times column rated the school’s band as “near the top of the local entertainment calendar.”
In the 1940s, a new gymnasium at the school hosted numerous musical acts, performances, community events and civil rights speakers. It also served as an evacuation center during a 1945 hurricane.
In 1947, the first state championship ever played in Corpus Christi featured the Coles Green Hornets. The team lost to opponents from Fort Worth, but 5,000 fans attended the game. About 14 years prior, the team, then called the Yellow Jackets, had competed in the state championship in its first season.
In later years, the school’s athletes would continue to excel in football and baseball. Highlights include a state football championship in 1960 and a 1965 baseball state championship.
In 1950, the local branch of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People advocated for the right of Coles High School graduates to attend Del Mar College. Previously, the only opportunity for local Black students to achieve college credits in Corpus Christi was through a night school taught by Coles teachers. The goal of integration at Del Mar College was achieved in 1952.
The Corpus Christi Independent School District began allowing Black students to attend other campuses in 1955, and Coles High School student enrollments fell in later years.
The building became a junior high in 1967, then an elementary school in 1973.
The school closed in 2005 before reopening a year later with $500,000 in upgrades as an alternative high school as a result of a lawsuit filed by community members to keep the school open due to its historical roots in the Black community, according to 2006 reporting.
Gloria Scott, whose husband attended Coles, was a key figure in the fight to save the school. She was honored during the 100th anniversary celebration.
“At the time they were trying to close the school and the school board was not going to give it any more resources,” Scott said. “I got involved to say, ‘Oh, no, this cannot happen.'”
Guy Nickleson, founder and CEO of the LEAD First Foundation, grew up in the community. His father, Charles Edwards, was a 1959 Coles graduate. Edwards died in August.
Without the efforts of community members like Scott, “these doors would have been closed” and “all of this history would have been erased,” Nickleson said. Nickleson attended other schools in the area, including Booker T. Washington Elementary School, which did close. If Coles had been closed too, there wouldn’t be any history left, he said.
“If we’re going to talk about the history of Corpus Christi, it’s got to include this area and what we brought to the table and what we are still bringing to the table,” Nickleson said.
Still an alternative campus, Coles High School serves about 100 students today.
For the 2024-25 school year, the Texas Education Agency gave Coles High School a B rating.
“What a legacy Solmon Melvin Coles gave to our community, to have one’s unshakable belief in the transformative power of education last long after one has left this earth,” said Bruce Wilson, assistant superintendent of school leadership for Corpus Christi ISD. “Think of how many lives he changed for the better during his years as an educator and in the 100 years since his name became linked with public education.”
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This article originally appeared on Corpus Christi Caller Times: Coles High School still educating students after 100 years