Former Stonewall School principal and long-time educator Harvey Eckert sits at one of the desks on display in the Junction School on Saturday following the ceremony to mark the 50th anniversary of the signing of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965. At the time of the signing, Eckert was principal at Stonewall. More photos on A/B3. — Standard-Radio Post/Yvonne Hartmann
By Yvonne Hartmann —
Friends, family and former associates gathered Saturday at the Junction School to mark 50 years since President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965.
“His extraordinary contributions, first as a teacher and then as a president, have left an indelible mark on education throughout this great country,” Dr. Denise Trauth, president of Texas State University, said in her remarks on Saturday. “He understood the importance of education and made access to education at all levels a touchstone of his presidency.”
The Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 provided extensive federal funding of the nation’s elementary, junior high and high schools.
Hosted by the Lyndon B. Johnson National Historical Park, the commemoration ceremony was held at the one-room school where the late president began his education when he was four years old.
Keynote speaker for the program was Dr. Randall B. Woods, author of “LBJ: Architect of American Ambition.”
“I never thought growing up in Texas that I would write about somebody from Texas,” Woods said. “In graduate school, that is not considered appropriate. You write about things you know least about and are farthest from your experience, which I think is a dramatic error.”
So, he said, when he turned 50, he decided he could do as he pleased.
“Lyndon Johnson is one of the most remarkable figures in all of American history — complex, powerful, controversial,” Woods said. “I think that no one who is at all fair-minded will deny that his achievements in the domestic sphere are unprecedented, and I mean unprecedented.”
“As president,” Woods said, “he was determined to elevate education to one of the fundamental rights to which all Americans were entitled.”
Saturday’s program opened with the posting of the colors by the Fredericksburg High School Naval JROTC Color Guard, singing of the National Anthem and the Pledge of Allegiance led by students from Stonewall Elementary School.
“As I have reflected this afternoon on the gathering of friends and associates in this place, I couldn’t but help believe that we probably represent 50 years ago a very similar scene of what happened on this site,” said Russ Whitlock, superintendent of the LBJ National Historical Park, in his welcome.
Dave Shafer, chief of interpretation for the LBJ National Historical Park, pointed out that Johnson started at the Junction School in 1912. The school, he said, was active until 1947.
Shafer introduced a number of special guests attending the celebration, including Elizabeth Lindig Crenwelge, the last teacher at the Junction School, and three former students, Juneth Whitaker Watson, Lucille Maurer Scharnhorst and Rosie Lee Lindig Kunkel.
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