Paul Quinn College

The college survived the 1930s by improvisation. When A. J. Jackson became president in 1932, enrollment had fallen to 125 students and the debt was about $42,000. He put students and staff to work restoring the buildings and organized Progressive Clubs of alumni and friends to raise money. By 1936 $10,500 had been paid and enrollment topped 300. Prairie View taught courses on the Waco campus, and the state granted accreditation in 1938. In 1990 Paul Quinn moved to Dallas, taking over the campus of the closed Bishop College.

What the plaque says

Paul Quinn College 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." (1972)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Waco Suspension Bridge — 0.8 mi
  A Brazos crossing opened in January 1870 as the longest single-span suspension bridge west of the Mississippi, tolled until 1889, closed to vehicles in 1971 and now walked.
• Texas Ranger Hall of Fame and Museum — 1.1 mi
  The official state repository of Texas Ranger memorabilia, opened in 1968 in Fort Fisher Park on the Brazos, named for a Ranger post of 1837 whose site no one has located.
• Dr Pepper Museum — 1.3 mi
  The 1906 bottling plant of the Artesian Manufacturing and Bottling Company, built where Dr Pepper outgrew a Waco drugstore soda fountain, now the Dr Pepper Museum.
• Armstrong Browning Library — 2.0 mi
  A three-story Italian Renaissance library on the Baylor campus built to hold A. J. Armstrong's Browning collection, dedicated in December 1951 and now, by its own account, the world's largest of Browning material.

More markers nearby

• Doris Miller — steps away
• Toliver Chapel Baptist Church — 0.4 mi
• Jacob De Cordova — 0.9 mi
• Site of First Church Building in Waco — 0.9 mi