History Timelines and Stories

Two years before Brown v. Board of Education mandated desegregation, Del Mar College voluntarily desegregated in 1952.  Del Mar was founded in 1935 and in the late 1940s a separate campus for African American students at Solomon Coles high school was established, called Coles Junior College. The school was in the segregated area of Corpus Christi, which was the Washington-Coles neighborhood on the north side of the city. At that time, the Supreme Court’s decision in Plessy v. Ferguson stated separate facilities among different races were constitutional if equal. “The idea that these schools or any of those other facilities…

Del Mar College’s West Campus, also known as the Windward Campus, opened in September 1958 to help meet Corpus Christi’s growing need for vocational and technical training. The expansion came as the East Campus became overcrowded and risked losing accreditation due to its large student population. The decision to build a second campus on Old Brownsville Road allowed Del Mar to move programs such as industrial trades, health sciences, and automotive technology into their own space. When it first opened, the new campus had five buildings and was called the Del Mar Technical Vocational Institute. According to the college archives,…

The Texas Jazz Festival, held in Corpus Christi every October, is far more than just a festival. The Texas Jazz Fest has become a staple in our community, and a celebration of culture and music, where everyone is welcome. The Texas Jazz Festival started as a mere concert organized in November 1959 by the Del Mar’s Jazz Club, which was newly formed.  “We were flabbergasted that so many people showed up that night in the Harvin Center,” said Eddie Olivares, Jazz Club member, who spoke to Guadalupe San Miguel Jr., author of “Tejanos and the Making of the Texas Jazz…