Gregory-Lincoln Education Center

One namesake is Edgar M. Gregory, an officer in the Union army in the U. S. Civil War and the assistant commissioner of the Texas area's Freedmen's Bureau. The other is Abraham Lincoln.

The first campus for the Lincoln Junior Senior School was built in 1966. The original campus was a three story brick building. It served as a neighborhood secondary school for a section of Montrose. The school opened just as schools were no longer legally segregated by race in the U. S. as the result of the Civil Rights Movement. Thorne Dreyer and Al Reinert of Texas Monthly wrote that HISD officials at the time called it "the most successfully integrated school in the city." However some white families assigned to Lincoln avoided the school by way of private school, moving to another school zone, or renting an apartment in another school zone. A parent teacher organization was formed despite the disadvantaged backgrounds of some families. Beginning in 1969, a desegregation program, initially funded by parishioners of the First Presbyterian Church and operated by the Emergency School Assistance Programs, a federal government initiative to support schools that racially integrated, began. The church funding paid for the first year. It was initially both a junior and senior high school, and also became the campus of Houston Community High School, an HISD magnet school. At a later point it was solely Lincoln Junior High School. In 1980 the district closed the Gregory School (now used as the African American Library at the Gregory School) and consolidated its students, including elementary ones, into Lincoln. A document quoted in a U. S. Congressional report stated that area residents perceived the move as trying to destabilize the Fourth Ward and "The closing of Gregory and the shifting of its students to Lincoln was met with intense opposition from Fourth Ward residents." In 2000, The development attracted controversy since it used eminent domain to seize property owned by existing residents, even though some residents expressed a reluctance to have their property seized. Betty L. Martin of the Houston Chronicle said that some of the properties were "reputed to be of historical significance." In 2006 Houston ISD did not find any new grave sites and started development of Gregory Lincoln. The new Gregory Lincoln campus was scheduled to be completed by 2008. Gregory Lincoln's elementary boundary had an increase in territory in Midtown. As the result of the 2011 closing of E. O. Smith Education Center, Gregory Lincoln's middle school boundary had an increase in territory in Downtown Houston. As part of rezoning for the 2014–2015 school year, all portions of Midtown previously zoned to Blackshear Elementary School and all portions of Downtown previously zoned to Blackshear as well as many portions previously zoned to Bruce Elementary School were rezoned to Gregory Lincoln for elementary school. From 2009 to 2019 each Gregory Lincoln principal had a term of two years or fewer. Jacob Carpenter of the Houston Chronicle used the school as an example of a low income urban school plagued by constant staff turnover, as in addition four tenths of the teachers from each school year are not present in the following one.

In 1972, there were 1,336 students attending Lincoln Junior Senior High. Black students made up 63%, Mexican origin students made up 20%, and 17% were Anglo White. to about 700 students in the 2004 2005 period.

Gregory Lincoln requires school uniforms. All students must wear red, grey, or black polo shirts. Students must wear khaki trousers, shorts, or skirts. The Texas Education Agency specified that the parents and/or guardians of students zoned to a school with uniforms may apply for a waiver to opt out of the uniform policy so their children do not have to wear the uniform; parents must specify "bona fide" reasons, such as religious reasons or philosophical objections.

The elementary attendance boundary includes the Fourth Ward, almost all of Midtown (all of the super neighborhood and the portion of the management district north of U. S. Highway 59), and most of Downtown. Small sections of the Neartown area, including parts of Avondale and East Montrose, are zoned to Gregory Lincoln Elementary. The middle school attendance boundary includes: East Montrose, First Montrose Commons, Roseland Estates, and parts of Hyde Park, and North Montrose). Houston House Apartments, One Park Place, and Sheridan Apartments are zoned to Gregory Lincoln for grades K 8. Isabella Court, and The Rice are zoned to Gregory Lincoln for grades 6 8.