HEARNE ACADEMY. Hearne Academy, a school for blacks in Texas after Reconstruction,^qv was founded by the Baptist Lincoln Association in 1881 just outside of Hearne. It operated there until 1909, when it was renamed Fort Worth Industrial and Mechanical College and moved to Fort Worth. The school received funds from the American Baptist Home Mission in New York, and its faculty and administration were all black. H. N. Broiles was principal of the institution, which was supported by blacks across Texas through the Baptist Missionary and Educational Convention. Elementary and secondary studies were offered, as well as college-preparatory and industrial courses. The college supplied students to Bishop College in Marshall and helped local blacks learn important skills. One of its alumni, Alexander Asberry,^qv served in the Texas legislature from 1889 to 1896. Like other similar schools, the institution was underfunded and struggled to provide adequate instruction. It closed in 1929.

BIBLIOGRAPHY: Alwyn Barr, Black Texans: A History of Negroes in Texas, 1528-1971 (Austin: Jenkins, 1973). Alton Hornsby, Jr., Negro Education in Texas, 1865-1917 (M.A. thesis, University of Texas, 1962). Norman L. McCarver and Norman L. McCarver, Jr., Hearne on the Brazos (San Antonio: Century, 1958). Lawrence D. Rice, The Negro in Texas, 1874-1900 (Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1971).

William E. Montgomery