Conroe entered the 20th Century on an optimistic note. In 1903, an enterprising Black couple, Dr. Jimmy Johnson and his wife, Chaney, seized the moment to operationalize a grand college for Black students.
With the addition of the flamboyant James Rayner, the college soon gained statewide attention, which attention Dr. David Abner Jr. maneuvered into the “Golden Years of the School.” Yet by 1971, the school was in decline.
In that year, however, Rev. P. S. Walker arrived to engage critical moves allowing the school to survive into the second decade of the 21st century to close on another high note as the Conroe Baptist Theological Institute.
Walker’s 14-year remarkable career at the helm began with the recognition that, as he put it, “the school’s golden days were past”. A graduate of the school himself in 1954, Walker opined that those were the days when ministers and teachers were educated in the classics of religion, business and science. Walker set the stage for a return to a reflection of those golden days along a seemingly unorthodox path. His bold moves find reverence in an undated clipping from the school archives which tells the story.
By Lynn Garner in the Houston Chronicle, the article is entitled “Surviving on Prayer.” Garner quotes Reverend Walker as stating the following: “The college survives on the strength of alumni who volunteer their time, in addition to support from the 250.000 member American Baptist Convention of Texas, headquartered in Houston.”
By the time of Reverend Walker’s tenure, then, the school was on the verge of closing, finding difficulty in meeting its $71,000 annual budget. It was at this time that he set out to expand the school’s vocational programs, which proved to be the school’s salvation. By the early nineteen eighties, the school supported some 183 primarily African-American students, with most enrolled in G.E.D. classes to earn a high school equivalency.
The school’s offerings also included book- keeping, typing, nursing welding and mechanical classes in addition to an unaccredited four-year program offering a bachelor- of- theology degree. Teachers were mostly volunteers and many were ex- students. In 1978 Walker even made a valiant but unsuccessful attempt to gain junior college accreditation.
Though many of P. S. Walker’s goals fell short of realization, his success lies in the foundation he provided for his immediate successors to begin the road back to another era of greatness. Markers of success included an impressive list of extension schools with sites ranging all the way to San Francisco, California! As listed on an innovative flyer in the school’s files, other extensions were in West Texas City, Baytown, Jasper, Eagle Lake, LaPorte, Brazoria and Lufkin, Texas.
If not a “Golden Era,” Rev. P. S. Walker set a “Golden Example” of ingenuity, and courage, worthy of listing as a prominent player among the legends of Conroe and Montgomery County.
Robin Montgomery is a native of Montgomery County, retired professor, historian, author and columnist for The Courier.
