Blackshear Fine Arts Academy, E 11th St., Austin, Tx
Friendly R. Rice started as Blackshear Elementary School’s Assistant Principal in 1931. He became the Supervising Principal in 1933 and would lead the school until 1972.
The Ivy League-educated Rice, widely viewed as a leading progressive educator, had free rein to implement his innovative ideas – collaborating with social service agencies to serve what we today call “at risk” kids, building a library with a credentialed librarian (the first at a black school in the southwest), and providing hot lunches for kids, a novelty adopted throughout the District.
(Further information on Rice can be obtained at the Austin Historical Society, George Washington Carver Museum, through the Portal to Texas History’s Building the African-American Community collection)
The right side of the wall holds an important narrative for the community and the school. On the left, you see a group of non de-script figures representing the many generations and skills it took to build up the current community we all flourish from. The bookcase pays respects to the first library Mr. Rice implemented into the school.
The collards greens pay homage to the local gardens that fed the students and faculty alike before, and during, the implementation of hot lunches provided in school to students.