AUSTIN, Texas — For the better part of a century, there was only one high school in Austin where Black students could attend: the Original L.C. Anderson located in the eastern part of the city.
For Black History Month, KVUE took a trip down memory lane with a group of former students who want to make sure their deep history doesn't fade away.
One step inside her old band room and the memories came flooding back for former student Barbara Spears-Corbett.
"I'm honored to say that I was the drum major," she said.
The year was 1970. Little did Spears-Corbett know, she would be one of the last students of the segregation era to attend the Original L.C. Anderson High School.
One year later, the school would temporarily shut down to comply with a federal desegregation order.
"Integration was a blessing and a curse. It was a blessing because the constitutional provisions that were applicable to all citizens now became applicable to us. It was a curse in that it killed a thriving neighborhood," Alexander Porter, a graduate of the class of 1950, said.
Porter's sentiments are shared by many former L.C. Anderson Yellow Jackets who believe the school was the glue that held East Austin together.
"We lost the neighborhood grocery store and the businesses," Nancy Thompson, a class of 1965 alumna, said.
Spears-Corbett expressed a similar thought.
"And just seeing things change from a vibrant neighborhood and community to, wow, things are closed now because the school isn't here. It was like my heart crushed," she said.
Today, some of the school's original lockers and bricks – and even parts of the gym floor – can be found inside the Thompson Street building where the original campus once stood.
PHOTOS: L.C. Anderson High School in Austin, Texas
A few years ago, it was renovated and turned into Eastside Early College High School.
While the façade has changed, the values the former students learned still remain. These graduates feel they had something special. They were part of a school that excelled in band, academics and sports – known for being the very best.
"Our teachers were very dedicated. They weren't just here for the paycheck," Thompson said. "They instilled in us not only the academic, but the social aspect of life. We were challenged. We were supported."
The students felt they were supported to become the best Austin had to offer despite the societal limitations at the time.
"Anderson High School provided the basics for doctors, lawyers, dentists, military, fire department. All these things that were segregated," Porter said.
"You got the idea that you really wanted to be the best person you could. I feel that we have a lot to be grateful for," Dr. Beulah Agnes Jones, salutatorian for the class of 1949, said.
"So, what's important to us, the alumni, is to make sure that our story is told," Spears-Corbett said.
The Original L.C. Alumni Association is a national organization with chapters not just in Austin, but throughout Texas, California and Nevada. The association also gives out annual scholarships to descendants of L.C. Anderson alumni.
Laurine Cecil Anderson, better known as L.C., was a teacher and school administrator who once taught with Booker T. Washington. Anderson co-founded the Colored Teachers State Association of Texas (CTSAT) and was also principal of the original school, first named after his brother, Earnest.
Despite its changes throughout the years, the Original L.C. Anderson remains a positive memory for many former graduates, even now.