Eagle Pass ISD Board Unanimously Approves Name Change of Robert E. Lee Elementary to Juan N. Seguin Elementary
The Eagle Pass Independent School District Board of Trustees unanimously approved at their regular meeting held on Tuesday, November 10, 2020, to change the name of Robert E. Lee Elementary School to Juan N. Seguin Elementary School effective with the 2021-2022 school year.
Juan N. Seguin was a political and military hero of the Texas Revolution and the Republic of Texas. He was born on October 27, 1806 in San Antonio, Texas. He was elected as an Alderman of San Antonio in December 1828 and later as Alcalde (Mayor) in December 1833.
Seguin’s military career began in 1835 when he responded to the Federalist state governor’s call for support against the Centralist opposition by leading a militia company to Monclova, Coahuila, Mexico. After the battle of Gonzales, Stephen F. Austin granted Seguin a captain’s commission, who raised a company of 37 men. His company was involved in the fall of 1835 in scouting and supply operations for the Texas Revolutionary Army. On December 5, 1835, Seguin and his company participated in the assault on General Martin Perfecto de Cos’s army at San Antonio. Seguin entered the Alamo with other Texan military men when General Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna’s army arrived, but was sent out as a courier to seek assistance. Upon reaching Gonzales, Seguin organized a company that fought with Sam Houston’s army at the battle of San Jacinto against Santa Anna’s army, which was defeated and surrendered to Sam Houston with Seguin witnessing Santa Anna’s surrender.
Seguin’s company from Gonzales was the only Tejano unit to fight at the battle of San Jacinto with Sam Houston.
Seguin accepted the Mexican surrender of San Antonio on June 4, 1836, and served as the city’s military commander through the fall of 1837 and directed the burial services for the remains of the Alamo dead. He resigned his commission at the end of 1837 upon his election to the Texas Senate, where he was the only Mexican Texan in the Texas Senate.
Seguin died on August 27, 1890, in Nuevo Laredo, Mexico. His remains were returned to Texas in 1974 and buried in Seguin, Texas, the city named after him, during ceremonies on July 4, 1976.
The Eagle Pass Business Journal commends and congratulates the Eagle Pass Independent School District Board of Trustees on their unanimous vote to get rid of the systemic racism, slavery, and white supremacy philosophy that Robert E. Lee and the Confederate States stood for and were defeated in the American Civil War. Bravo!
