James E. Shepard
Durham, Durham County, North Carolina
Marker Inscription
James E. Shepard. Negro educational and religious leader. Founder of a college (1910), now N.C. Central University, its president to 1947. Grave is 1 1/2 miles S.E.
Erected by North Carolina Department of Cultural Resources
The Story
James E. Shepard was a leading Black educational and religious figure in early-twentieth-century North Carolina. In 1910 he founded the Durham college that became North Carolina Central University, guiding it as president until 1947 through the hardest decades of segregated education.
Why it matters
His life shows how one determined leader could build durable institutions of Black advancement in an era designed to prevent them.
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North Carolina Central University
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