Stephen Alexander McBride
Burkeville vicinity, Newton County, Texas
Marker Inscription
As a co-founder of the Shankleville community, Stephen McBride worked to improve the lives of fellow African Americans. Stephen was born a slave in Texas in 1834. After emancipation, he and Jim Shankle bought land in northern Newton County, forming the nucleus of a community of homes, churches and businesses. McBride owned a cotton gin, store, blacksmith shop, and syrup, saw and grist mills in Shankleville. His most enduring contribution was McBride College (1883-1909), the gift of a man who could not read or write but valued education for young people. The two-story school building also served as a community center and site of religious revivals. Stephen McBride died in 1920. (2008)
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
Born into slavery in Texas in 1834, Stephen McBride helped found Shankleville after emancipation, buying land in northern Newton County with Jim Shankle to build a self-sustaining African-American community of homes, churches, and businesses. McBride himself ran a cotton gin, store, blacksmith shop, and several mills. His most lasting gift was McBride College, opened in 1883 by a man who could neither read nor write yet prized education above all for the young.
Why it matters
Shankleville and McBride College stand among the freedom colonies where formerly enslaved Texans built land-owning communities and schools, staking a claim to the full promise of emancipation.
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Related people
- · Stephen Alexander McBride
- · Jim Shankle
Related events
- · Founding of McBride College (1883)
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Shankleville Community
Burkeville, TX
Jim and Winnie Shankle, both born into slavery, became the first Black landowners and community leaders in Newton County after emancipation—but their story begins with an act of extraordinary devotion. Separated when Winnie and her children were sold to a Texan, Jim escaped his Mississippi owner and traveled 400 miles by night, swimming rivers, to find her. Freed and reunited, the couple and their allies eventually amassed over 4,000 acres, anchoring a thriving Black community of farms, churches, mills, and even McBride College (1883–1909).
Original Site, Burkeville Methodist Church
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In 1850 John and Mary Burke sold a dollar's worth of land for a Methodist church and cemetery in Burkeville, the town founded by the Roman Catholic Burke whose 1855 grave is the oldest known here. In an era served by circuit-riding preachers, the congregation included both black and white worshipers, and the simple frame church doubled as a schoolhouse in the 1870s and as a funeral chapel for all faiths. The building was removed from the site in 1948.
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Dixie Freedom Colony
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