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Oakland Normal School was a normal school in Oakland, Colorado County, Texas[1] for training African American teachers.[2] The school opened in 1882 and operated for over three decades.[3] G. R. Townsend and then Robert Lloyd Smith served as the school's principals.[4]
Robert Lloyd Smith taught at the school before becoming principal.[5] He was active in seeking to improve the lives of the community's African Americans and formed an improvement society for farmers.[6] The section where they lived was known as Freedmantown.[1]
Smith travelled from Oakland to Hampton Institute to speak and discussions included establishing an agricultural college in Texas following the Tuskegee teaching model.[7]
A historical marker was erected for the school in 1990.[3]
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29°36′05″N 96°49′51″W / 29.6013°N 96.8308°W