It was founded in the early 20th century to serve the black community, and became an accredited high school in 1923.
It was initially called South Park Colored School but was renamed for Hebert at the instigation of the first principal, John P. Odom, and a group of supporters.
In the 1970s, in response to court rulings calling for desegregation, the principal, James Jackson, and many of the teachers were reassigned elsewhere.
[2][4] At the time of the merger, Hebert students were scoring noticeably below students at Forest Park and South Park High School, the district's other mostly white high school, especially in reading; the district as a whole was below the national average.
[10] The football team won the Prairie View Interscholastic League championship for black schools twice, in 1959 and 1966.