Paul Quinn College- Waco, Tx

Paul Quinn College is the oldest historically black college west of the Mississippi River. The college was founded in 1872 in Austin, Texas by a small group of African Methodist Episcopal preachers at Metropolitan A.M.E. Church. The school’s original purpose was to educate freedmen and their children. In 1877, the College moved from Austin to Waco and was renamed Waco College. Classes were held in a modest one-building trade school; freedmen were taught the skills of blacksmithing, carpentry, tanning, and saddle work, common occupations for the area, especially in the increasingly segregated state. All that’s left of the original college is the William Decker Johnson Hall featured below.