During the first half of the 20th century, E.J. Campbell oversaw a growing Nacogdoches Colored School and, and along the way, expanded opportunities in public education offered to Black Nacogdoches students.
Now, 114 years after taking over as a principal of the school, Campbell – known by his contemporaries as “The Professor” – will be memorialized with a statue that will be unveiled at 11 a.m. Saturday, Oct. 19, by the Friends of Historic Nacogdoches Inc. The statue will join the group’s historic statue walk between downtown and Stephen F. Austin State University.
Campbell’s statue will be located just to the north of Thomas J. Rusk Elementary School along Mound Street (and just to the east of the historic Old University Building). The statue, which remains wrapped until the ceremony on Saturday, will depict Campbell kneeling and holding a globe next to a student sitting at a desk.
E.J. Campbell shown with other Black educators in Nacogdoches
“The E.J. Campbell sculpture celebrates the long, distinguished line of educators who have molded our youth for generations,” reads a plaque adjacent to the statue. “Born in 1877 in Upshaw Community of Northwest Nacogdoches County, E.J. Campbell excelled in school and became a master at teaching math and school management for aspiring school teachers. As principal of the Nacogdoches Colored School from 1910 to 1937, Campbell guided the African American schools through the difficult days of educational segregation.
“His expertise in public relations and his talent for solving problems enabled the school's population to increase from 125 to 900 students.
“Under his leadership reading, writing, and arithmetic were supplemented with courses in health, home economics, and agriculture. Also, during his tenure, Campbell invested in the arts and began the Black Dragon Athletic Organization and marching band.”
Today, Nacogdoches ISD’s district annex located at 420 S. Shawnee St. still bears Campbell’s name and is used by the district as the location for meetings of the Board of Trustees.
Before becoming the district's annex, the facility opened in 1954 as E.J. Campbell High School to replace an aging structure located across the street and to serve the growing population of students. At the time the district was still segregated – in fact, it would be 1970 before NISD was fully desegregated.
When the new E.J. Campbell High School opened in 1954, trustees voted to rename the elementary school – which also bore Campbell’s name – for another influential Nacogdoches Black educator: Emeline Carpenter.
Campbell’s legacy extends today well beyond the name on a facility. And, at the time of his death, Campbell’s loss was keenly felt by the district. Two days after his passing, in March 1937, NISD trustees held their regular board meeting, where the superintendent at the time, Rufus Price, laid out plans to cover the work of Campbell, who was 58 at the time of his death.
Campbell and his wife Mary joined the district in 1910 after teaching at County Line in the Upshaw Community, a freedmen’s settlement founded in northern Nacogdoches County during the 19th century. When the couple arrived in Nacogdoches, NISD’s Black school had four rooms and served roughly 150 students, according to an essay published in the Nacogdoches Daily Sentinel in 2017.
Campbell left the school in much better condition. The campus located along the east side of Shawnee Street had been expanded to accommodate more students, and by 1937, the school had extracurricular activities, including fine arts programs and other academic endeavors to go along with athletic teams.