Travis Elementary (3311 Beauchamp St, Houston, TX) needs a new name!  William B. Travis is a terrible role model for our children.

Travis moved to Texas in 1831 to avoid paying his outstanding debts in Alabama.  He abandoned his son and his wife, who was, at the time, pregnant with their second child.

Slavery was abolished in Texas in 1829, when Texas was a Mexican territory.  In 1832, Travis was hired by an enslaver to return to bondage a group of two or more people who had escaped slavery in Louisiana and sought refuge in Texas. He argued that they were "contraband," property that had been moved across the border without being taxed.  When he was told that they were people, he then tried to physically kidnap them.  For this, he was put in jail.

Travis is best known for dying at the Battle of the Alamo. Every history book in the state lists a variation of “Joe, Travis’s slave” among the survivors of the Alamo. After Travis was killed, Santa Anna freed the enslaved.

Ann Richards was governor of Texas from 1991-1995.  Born in Waco, Texas, she began her career as a school teacher in Austin.  She knew the value of our teachers!  Reflecting back on her remarkable career, she stated "Teaching was the hardest work I had ever done, and it remains the hardest work I have done to date."