DUANE
Duane's take
Here's how the official marker tells it — and it's a story worth every word. Paul Quinn College. McLennan County, Texas.
Sit with this one a while. We're going back to April 4, 1872, when the African Methodist Episcopal Church opened a school in Austin. They called it the Connectional High School and Institute for Negro Youth, and from that first day it carried a purpose bigger than its name.
Bishop J.M. Brown — born 1817, died 1893 — served as president through 1876, and the founders standing behind him were Bishop R.H. Cain, and the Reverends J.H.
Armstrong, W.R. Carson, J.V. Goins, Abraham Grant, William Leake, and Henry Wilhite.
That's a roster. That's a coalition of people who looked at the world as it was and decided to build something anyway. The school later came to be known as Waco College, settled at 8th and Mary streets, and there it taught newly freed slaves blacksmithing, carpentry, tanning, and the like.
Practical skills. Survival skills. The kind of knowledge that puts food on the table and keeps a family standing.
Then 1881 arrives, and the school moves to its present site. It gets a new name too — renamed for Bishop William Paul Quinn, born 1788, died 1873, described on the marker as an early Missionary to the Western States. Now here is where the story grabs you by the collar and won't let go.
The expanded curriculum needed a building. And a building needs bricks. And bricks cost money — money that these folks, by the marker's own words, desperately poor, did not have in abundance.
So what did they do? They launched a campaign. Ten cents a brick.
Ten cents. You could hold that contribution in one hand and barely feel the weight of it. But multiply ten cents by enough people who believed in something, and you raise walls.
You raise a building. You raise a college. Every brick in that first structure was the physical expression of a dream, purchased one dime at a time by people who had almost nothing and gave it anyway.
More buildings came as the service and value of the college became apparent — the marker's words, plain and true. Growth accelerated from 1962 onward under the leadership of Bishop O.L. Sherman.
And through all of it, the illustrious alumni and students of Paul Quinn College have carried the school's motto: a past to cherish, a future to fulfill. Texas' oldest liberal arts college for Negroes, born from ten cents and an unshakeable conviction. That motto didn't come from nowhere.
It was earned, one brick at a time.
What the marker says
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."