Education for American Negro citizens of Gonzales began in the 1870s at the home of Myrtle Moses Mathis. More formalized instruction took place in the 1890s when the school occupied a 2-story community building. A brick schoolhouse was erected about 1914 on land donated by W.M. Fly and Josephine K. Peck. It was named George Edwards High School in 1922 and served 300 students and 8 teachers by 1940. Edwards High School was closed in 1964 as schools were desegregated in compliance with the federal Civil Rights Act. The school was sold in the 1970s. (1997)