Gatesville, Texas

The boys who were interned in Gatesville were overwhelmingly city dwellers. One survey of early Gatesville inmates found that 119 out of 195 listed their mother's occupation as housekeeper. Two thirds of these boys had lost one of their parents, and slightly less than half of their parents had criminal records themselves. Although Gatesville admitted inmates regardless of race or ethnicity, it strictly segregated every aspect of their daily lives,. As a result, about 250 black inmates crowded into Harris Hall, the Jim Crow congregate dormitory built to house about half that number. By contrast, when the state opened its first and only training school for girls before World War II, it excluded black females altogether.