It’s difficult to believe that Conroe College was once the cornerstone of Black education, theology, and community in Montgomery County while you’re standing inside its remnants.
The African-American university attracted hundreds of prospective students, professors, musicians, and residents for more than a century. Juneteenth events, poetry slams, and Valentine’s Day parties were also held there.
The college is currently in danger of collapsing. Midcentury fourth-grade language arts sets, mildewing hardcovers, and yellowed editions of The Good Word are all long gone, and the ceiling looks like it might collapse.
Pastor William Denman, a 1990 Conroe College alumnus, said it’s historic. Being a historical landmark, it must be recognized and shown.
The goal of the Conroe College Reimagined Foundation, a recently formed nonprofit organization, is to raise funds to buy Conroe College and bring it back to its former splendor while also preserving the college’s legacy and finding new uses for the remaining 20 acres of campus.
Due to poor financial management and the availability of alternative higher education options, the college declined. After closing its doors in 2011, the institution was purchased by The Woodlands real estate mogul Dale Weeby three years later.
Recently, the organization was granted 501(c)3 status, which allows it to receive tax-deductible donations for the purpose of preserving and purchasing the college.
According to John Meredith, the foundation’s treasurer, young people accuse you of attempting to live in the past. However, it is crucial that we respect and remember our past.
Members of the African-American community in Conroe, such as Jimmy Johnson, a former pastor at East Side Church of Christ who taught at Conroe College in the late 1990s, Meredith, 74, said, recognize the importance of heritage preservation.
According to Johnson, a significant portion of Conroe’s Black heritage is lost. Additionally, you lose your pride and self-confidence, and our children grow up knowing just what they see or learn from television. If we are unaware of this, we will regress instead of advance.
Black education in the shadow of slavery
Black Texans’ access to education was severely restricted by segregation at the turn of the 19th century.
Dr. Jimmie Johnson, who is unrelated to Jimmy Johnson, and his spouse Chaney saw firsthand the dire need for an educational institution in Montgomery County and across Texas.
The couple spent years raising money for a new Conroe-based school, even selling their own farm to cover expenses.
According to historical records, the Conroe Normal and Industrial College was founded in April 1903, less than 40 years after the Civil War ended, with the intention of teaching African-Americans to uphold Christian values of diligence, modesty, and leading by example for both black and white people.
Latin, theology, English, algebra, chemistry, music, the arts, food service, and agricultural and vocational training were among the many courses the college provided in its early years. Above everything else, however, the college’s core was still Christian education.
Growing up as the youngest of eleven children during the Jim Crow era, Denman recalls stealing a drink from the whites-only water fountain in downtown Conroe when he was six years old.
He personally saw the financial toll racism took on his family. His mother cleaned houses for only $15 a week. In order to purchase school clothes at JC Penney, Denman began caddying at the Conroe Country Club when he was eleven years old.
Before God brought the 76-year-old preacher into Christianity, he spent 27 years working as a postman.
He continued, “I didn’t retire.” The Lord commanded me to give up.
Denman attended Conroe College, which has been referred to by various names as Conroe Baptist Theological Institute or Conroe Bible College. He learned from generations of pastors who received their training at the college in three-hour classes on Mondays and Wednesdays.
According to Denman, who founded his own congregation, Temple of Faith, in 1997 after graduation, “I followed a dream I knew nothing about, but I grew spiritually through the college.”
Due to budget cuts to his curriculum, former preacher Jimmy Johnson was only able to teach at the institution for a few months. Funding became less consistent as the decades passed. Rev. P.S. Walker, the former president of Conroe College, stated in an undated Houston Chronicle story that the early 1900s prosperity was long gone.
In addition to funding the religious program and personnel by the 250,000-member American Baptist Convention of Texas, which has its headquarters in Houston, the college also relies on the efforts of its alumni who volunteer their time to teach religious seminars, Walker told the Chronicle.
Nonetheless, the college continued to be a mainstay of social gatherings for the Black community. Johnson remembered taking pictures of the neighborhood during Conroe College’s yearly Black history procession and DJing wedding receptions, parties, and anniversaries.
According to Johnson, I was either taking pictures or spinning records. These are wonderful memories.
Reimaging Conroe College
Meredith believes that by sharing stories of Johnson and Denman’s time at Conroe College, benefactors may be encouraged to contribute to this initiative.
He claimed that’s what catches people’s attention.
The long-neglected ancient Black cemetery next to the institution has been restored thanks in large part to the efforts of the Montgomery County resident. Additionally, he successfully pushed for the Conroe Independent School District to honor Mittie J. Turner Campbell, the first Black female principal in the district, with the name of its newest primary school building.
Meredith and Montgomery County Historical Commission Chair Larry Foerster hope the college can be converted into a park, a community and entertainment center, an African-American history museum, or a mix of these.
According to Johnson, the college served as a hub for our community. It served as a hub where everyone might congregate for a sizable gathering, such as a church convention or religious function.
Johnson entered the dimly lit corridors of the Calhoun-Edwards Administration Building, the final building on the Conroe College campus, on a sunny, bright morning in mid-November.
He pointed to the platform that had previously overlooked the same people Johnson had photographed with his camera, who were typically dressed to the nines, standing beside holiday décor or spinning around the dance floor.
There’s a lot of dancing going on! Johnson remembered.
Hopefully, there will be many more.
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