Not many people in Brownsville know who Mittie Pullam was and how important her legacy is.
“It’s important that the legacy of Mittie Pullam never be forgotten,” Hugh Emerson, a local history teacher, said.
“Not many people know who Mittie Pullam is, I found out about her from a former banker. When I was elected to the Brownsville Independent School District, his question was, ‘when are you going to name a school after Mittie Pullam?’ and I said ‘Who is Mittie Pullam?’
“I didn’t know who Mittie Pullam was, I didn’t know that there was a segregated school and when he told me I was very sad because that’s not the Brownsville that I know, that’s not the Brownsville that I grew up in, that’s not the Brownsville that’s all inclusive and loves everybody.”
In 1947, Pullam, who was African American, moved to Brownsville and helped found the first colored school for black children. The school was named Frederick Douglass Elementary School and was located on East Fronton Street, where she was the sole teacher and principal. She taught grades first through sixth, and the caliber of education was considered exceptional, according to records of the time period, easily on par with the Brownsville Independent School District’s white schools, her official website reads.
Black families living in Brownsville that came to work on the railroad construction and at the Port of Brownsville, were not allowed to enroll their children at the white Brownsville schools. This was years before the Supreme Court’s ruling in Brown vs. Board of Education.
“The segregated school, unfortunately, started after World War II in 1947 and closed well after the United States Supreme Court Case Brown vs. Board of Education in 1954. They closed somewhere around 1960,” Emerson said.
“It is very important for the people of Brownsville never to forget the legacy that Ms. Pullam left for her students and for the community at large. She was very, very highly respected by several members of the community.”
Pullam’s school was a one-room school house that was subsidized by the African American community, even though it was a public school. BISD was eventually desegregated in the 1960s. Segregation lasted several years after the landmark Supreme Court decision due to Jim Crow laws in Texas. The Frederick Douglass Elementary’s black students were incorporated into Skinner Elementary School, and Mrs. Pullam was hired at Skinner as well, where she is remembered as one of the school’s most extraordinary teachers, the official website reads.
“She was everything in that school,” Emerson said. “She was the sole teacher, the principal, she was everything to that school. So it’s only fitting that she would be recognized.”
Emerson, and many more community members, started working diligently back in 2000 to name a school after Pullam. This became a reality in 2009 when a groundbreaking ceremony for a new elementary school took place. The school was named “Mittie Pullam Elementary” and at 97 years old, Pullam herself attended.
“There were some new schools that were available, and I was approached by Brenda Wilburn, she was a counselor at Rivera High School and we decided that we would form a committee and the committee included the reverend of the St. James Missionary Baptist Church, which is largely an African-American congregation,” he said. “We got several members of the community, several of her former students and we worked diligently.”
