Paul Quinn College
Waco, McLennan County, Texas
Marker Inscription
Texas' Oldest Liberal Arts College for Negroes. Originally Connectional High School and Institute for Negro Youth; opened in Austin, April 4, 1872,by the African Methodist Episcopal Church, under Bishop J.M. Brown (1817-1893), who served 1872-1876 as president. Founders were Bishop R. H. Cain, the Revs. J.H. Armstrong, W.R. Carson, J.V. Goins, Abraham Grant, William Leake, and Henry Wilhite. Later known as Waco College and located at 8th and Mary streets, the school taught newly freed slaves blacksmithing, carpentry, tanning, and the like. In 1881 it was moved to present site and renamed for Bishop William Paul Quinn (1788-1873), an early Missionary to the Western States. The expanded curriculum was taught in the first building erected from a "ten cents a brick" campaign, expressing the dreams of a desperately poor people. Additional buildings arose as service and value of the college became apparent, with growth accelerated since 1962 under leadership of Bishop O.L. Sherman. Illustrious alumni and students honor the Paul Quinn Motto: "A past to cherish, a future to fulfill."
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
Founded April 4, 1872, in Austin by the African Methodist Episcopal Church as an institute for Black youth, this school taught newly freed people trades like blacksmithing, carpentry, and tanning during Reconstruction. Moved to Waco in 1881 and renamed for Bishop William Paul Quinn, its first building rose from a 'ten cents a brick' campaign that channeled the hopes of a desperately poor community. It grew into Texas's oldest liberal arts college for African Americans, sustained across generations by its motto, 'A past to cherish, a future to fulfill.'
Why it matters
Paul Quinn College embodies the determination of freed people and the Black church to build higher education for themselves in the face of poverty and exclusion.
The story behind this marker
AI contextThe era
Paul Quinn College was born in the hopeful, dangerous years of Reconstruction. Slavery had ended in Texas only in 1865, and hundreds of thousands of freed people faced the work of building lives with almost nothing: no land, little money, and for most, no chance until then to learn to read or write.
Education was one of the first things freed people reached for, and the Black church led the way. The African Methodist Episcopal Church was founded in Philadelphia by free Black Methodists in the early 1800s. After the war it spread rapidly across the South, planting congregations and schools side by side.
In that setting, AME leaders opened a school in Austin in 1872. By the time it moved to Waco and took a new name in 1881, Reconstruction had ended, and Black Texans faced growing segregation and hostility. Their own institutions mattered more than ever.
People & events
The school opened in Austin on April 4, 1872, as the Connectional High School and Institute for Negro Youth. Bishop J. M. Brown served as its president from 1872 to 1876. Its founders included Bishop R. H. Cain and the Revs. J. H. Armstrong, W. R. Carson, J. V. Goins, Abraham Grant, William Leake and Henry Wilhite. Cain was a notable figure in his own right: an AME leader who also served in Congress from South Carolina during Reconstruction.
Known for a time as Waco College, and located at 8th and Mary streets, the school first taught practical trades to freed people, including blacksmithing, carpentry and tanning. Those skills meant real independence: a way to earn a living without depending on a former owner.
In 1881 it moved to this site and was renamed for Bishop William Paul Quinn, an early AME missionary who carried the church into the western states of his day. The curriculum broadened. The first building rose from a "ten cents a brick" campaign, in which a desperately poor community bought its college one brick at a time.
More buildings followed as the college proved its worth, and growth sped up after 1962 under Bishop O. L. Sherman. Generations of students carried forward its motto: "A past to cherish, a future to fulfill."
Its place in the American story
Paul Quinn belongs to the remarkable wave of Black colleges founded in the decades after emancipation. Many of them were built by Black churches and paid for by the people they served. It is Texas's oldest liberal arts college founded for African Americans, and it stands as proof that freed people were not waiting to be given an education. They built one.
The "ten cents a brick" campaign says more than any statistic could. Poor families, many only a few years out of slavery, gave dimes to put up a building they might never study in themselves. It was an act of faith in their children's future.
The college's later story continues the same theme. In 1990 Paul Quinn moved to Dallas, and it still serves students today. This Waco site marks where the institution put down roots and grew through the hardest decades of segregation.
If you visit
This marker remembers the Waco years, when the college grew from a trade school into a liberal arts institution. As you stand here, picture a campus raised literally dime by dime, and the students who came here because it was one of the few places in Texas open to them.
Waco has a rich store of history to pair with this stop, including sites connected to the city's African American community. Taking time to explore them will give the college's story its fuller setting.
Waco sits on the main highway between Dallas–Fort Worth and Austin, so the stop fits easily into a central Texas drive. If your travels continue north, the college's present campus in Dallas carries the same story forward.
Written by AI to add context, grounded in the marker’s inscription and the historical record. The inscription above is the original, unaltered text.
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Related people
- · Bishop William Paul Quinn
- · Bishop J. M. Brown
- · Bishop R. H. Cain
Themes & tags
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