I WAS JUST THINKING: Former Pearl C. Anderson students gather to remember past, plan future

By Norma Adams-Wade

Memories, honor, inspiration were central take-aways recently when former Pearl C. Anderson Middle Learning Center students gathered to look back and move forward.

“I’d die for Pearl C. Anderson,” One alumni gushed in describing his dedication to his middle school football team that inspired him to continue excelling in high school and college sports.

Alumni who organized the Sunday, June 4 gathering at the old school building said they plan to locate other Anderson alum and create a steering committee to plan a future all-city tribute to appreciate the school’s history and financially support its legacy.

The building, at 3400 Garden Lane near 2nd Avenue, closed as a school in 2012. Watermark Community Church, whose main facility is in North Dallas, purchased the deserted, vandalized school in 2019. It is now Watermark South Dallas – an extension and community development corporation center for the main facility.

The June 4 gathering on the school’s patio featured alumni speakers, a combined youth choir from Charles Rice and Paul L. Dunbar learning centers, youth poet Jhayce Anderson (no relation to Pearl C Anderson), and a food reception. Beloved Community Center CEO Kiven Roberson Sr. and Beloved community Center founder Dr. LaTrese Adkins co-hosted the gathering. Dr. Adkins thanked the co-sponsors: The Beloved Community CDC, Watermark South Dallas Church, and Rose Garden neighborhood residents.

Local broadcast journalist and community advocate Ken Smith spoke as a proud Pearl C. Anderson alumni.

“We had the best athletics and the best academics,” Smith said. “The best teachers were pulled to come here. We were taught levels ahead of where we were scheduled to be.”

Smith also recalled the graciousness of the school’s namesake when, as a youth, he was approved for a brief interview with her, but instead, she encouraged him to spend the day at her home.

Pearl Carina Bowden, later Anderson, [born August 18, 1898, died April 25, 1990] arguably was the most renown philanthropist to emerge from Dallas’ African-American community — known for literally giving her wealth away – to causes she deemed deserving.

By skin tone, Anderson appeared to be White and usually was mistaken to be so. Yet, nothing in her character spoke of privilege. She was soft-spoken and modest, the daughter of a Mulatto midwife and the White physician on whose land the mother lived shortly after the end of slavery. But young Pearl bore a resolute determination that brought her up from a childhood of poverty and working in cotton and peanut fields of Winn Parish, Louisiana.

She moved to Dallas alone at age 21 in 1919 with scant money that she had saved. She finagled a way to build a small grocery store in South Dallas, nurtured it, and later sold it for a small profit. She then worked in an icehouse, got very sick, and was treated by prominent, wealthy local Black physician Dr. John Wesley Anderson who also looked White. The two later married in 1929 and had a daughter who died in childhood. Dr. Anderson, also a philanthropist, owned valuable downtown Dallas property where he built a home and lived with his wife until he died in 1947 at age 85. She lived to age 91.

Still at the gathering, other alumni shared their stories. Don Washington recalled almost getting in trouble when he prematurely learning that former U. S. President John Kennedy had been shot during school hours when Anderson opened in 1963 and before administrators could inform other students. Washington said he ran down the school hall yelling: “The president got shot! The President got shot!” Still other alums included Betty Johnson Williams who has helped organize previous alumni meetings, and Michael Sneed who recalled the fear of entering a new school with new students.

Some prominent achievers were among the former Anderson students who attended the gathering. These included football luminary Ricky Wesson, the first African-American to start at quarterback for his Southern Methodist University alma mater and a 2009 inductee in the Texas Black Sports Hall of Fame; Gary “Peanut” Nicholas, a Prairie View A&M University football standout inducted into the 2011 Texas Black Sports Hall of Fame; Others included Eppie Meadows, a member of Anderson school’s first 1963 class.

I was just thinking…can the school’s legacy continue through the works of its graduates, even though the building has transitioned to other uses?

“We will continue this bigger and better next time,” Dr. Adkins told guests, commenting on plans for the proposed steering committee that will determine future activities.

Dr. Adkins and Roberson encouraged neighbors and alum to sign up for the proposed steering committee. One suggested volunteer effort would be to help the community learn about the Beloved Community Texas Homeowners Assistance Program that is nearing its September end date. It is for eligible homeowners who qualify for grants that will pay expenses including past due mortgages and property taxes. Beloved has a partnership with the Texas Homeowners Assistance Fund (TXHAF). To inquire, email Roberson at cdo@belovedcc.net or call 214-883-3308.

Norma Adams-Wade, is a proud Dallas native, University of Texas at Austin journalism graduate and retired Dallas Morning News senior staff writer. She is a founder of the National Association of Black Journalists and was its first southwest regional director. She became The News’ first Black full-time reporter in 1974. norma_adams_wade@yahoo.com