By Tiffany Saunders

Paper hearts, uplifting songs from the Rocket Choir and poetry readings filled the Bernice Hart Elementary cafeteria Friday in a celebration honoring the school’s trailblazing namesake.

"Bernice Hart Elementary is such a unique school. We are a plethora of multicultural students, families, teachers and staff that take pride in fulfilling our namesake’s legacy,” said Alana Urbano, the school’s music specialist and PTA president.

A native of East Austin and an alumnus of Blackshear Elementary, Kealing Junior High and the original L.C. Anderson High School, Hart was a champion for her community, students and teachers. 

“Bernice was very passionate about East Austin because she was born and lived there,” her sister Rose Marion Fuller and nephew Otis McCullough said in an email. “She wanted to make a difference by advocating for equality and better education for all.”

Following her graduation from Huston-Tillotson College, Hart earned a master’s degree in counseling from the University of Texas and spent 30 years as an educator and counselor in the district. 

Her teaching career took her to Travis High School and Murchison Junior High as a math teacher, then to LBJ High School where she was the head counselor. 

She retired in 1982. Friends and colleagues who knew that her passion for teaching continued even in retirement encouraged her to run for school board.

She won her first term in 1982 in a runoff election, serving as an advocate for East Austin. 

As a trustee in 1987, Hart took the controversial stance of supporting the district’s new student assignment plan—eliminating busing of elementary students outside their neighborhoods for desegregation purposes. 

“I knew, upfront, that a lot of folks would be upset and hollering and screaming,” Hart said in 1987. “I really feel, in my heart, that I did the right thing.” 

She was the lone minority trustee to vote in favor of the plan. Following the vote, the board’s two other minority members, Lidia Perez and Abel Ruiz, publicly expressed disappointment in Hart. 

Dorothy Turner, president of the Black Citizens’ Task Force at the time, said, “She took some abuse, but she had those little children’s interests at heart.” 

While the busing issue proved to be contentious, Hart remained a well-respected champion for minority rights during her lifetime. She continued to serve on the Board of Trustees until 1993 and served in every officer position, including her final term as president.

The Austin Chapter of the NAACP awarded her the Arthur B. DeWitty Award in 1986 and that same year she earned recognition for Outstanding Contribution to the Profession of Teaching from the College of Education at the University of Texas. She was inducted into the Original L. C. Anderson Alumni Association Hall of Fame for her outstanding service in the field of education in 1994.

Hart passed away on Jan. 30, 2012 at the age of 91, although her legacy is immortalized for generations to come.

“How often does a school take on the name of a Black woman from their very own community while she was still living?” Urbano said. “We could not be more proud of what she fought hard to establish for our students."