C. L. Anderson

Laurine Cecil Anderson

Laurine Cecil Anderson, often called L.C. Anderson, was born on June 4, 1853, in Memphis, Tennessee, the son of enslaved parents. He came of age in the years after slavery, when education for African Americans was being built under hard limits and constant political pressure. Anderson attended public schools in Memphis and earned a B.A. in Methodist Ministry from Fisk University in Nashville. He trained for the Methodist ministry, but his public work would be centered on schools, teachers, and the fight for equal standing in education.

Before coming to Texas, Anderson taught with Booker T. Washington at Tuskegee University in Alabama. In 1879, he moved to Texas to assist his brother, Earnest H. Anderson, a minister and teacher at Prairie View Normal Institute, now Prairie View A&M University. Anderson’s first Texas job was as principal of a school in Brenham, shortly before he moved to Prairie View. At Prairie View, he served as an assistant to his brother and called for the school to become a university. After Earnest H. Anderson died, Governor Oran Roberts appointed L.C. Anderson principal of Prairie View on October 29, 1885.

Anderson remained principal of Prairie View for eleven years. The institution itself had grown out of land granted in 1876 for an agricultural and mechanical college for the benefit of colored youth. When the college was struggling and close to closing, one plan was to divide it into two smaller schools, one of them Prairie View Normal Institution, established in 1879. In that setting, Anderson worked to improve African-American education in Texas. He also tried to bring together African American leaders in business, politics, and religious organizations.

Anderson is also known as a co-founder of the Colored Teachers State Association of Texas, formed with David Abner Sr. and eleven others. In 1884, he became the association’s first president and served until 1889. The group was organized to promote quality education for Black students and good working conditions for Black teachers. Its work was funded by member dues and carried out voluntarily. In its early years, the association campaigned for a Black university, and in 1893 it organized eight district associations in East Texas with help from politicians Norris Wright Cuney and John Rayner.

In 1896, Anderson was fired from Prairie View after a heated argument with D.A. Paulus during a board meeting. The dispute centered on Black rights, a subject Anderson cared about deeply, and Edward L. Blackshear replaced him as principal. Anderson then moved to Austin, where he served as Superintendent of Black Schools, a post previously held by Blackshear. He was connected to the school that later became Anderson High School, the first high school for African American children in Austin. He was principal there, taught Latin, and continued teaching after resigning because of declining health.

Anderson married Lizzie Pollard in 1882, and they had four children before her death. He later married Fanny Pollard, and they had one child. He died on January 8, 1938, in Austin and was buried at Oakwood Cemetery. After his death, the Austin school board renamed the school in his honor, recognizing his thirty-two years of service as principal. Anderson’s life still speaks through the institutions he helped build: Prairie View, the teachers’ association, and the Austin school that carried his name.