William Madison McDonald
Encyclopedia
William Madison McDonald (June 22, 1866 – July 5, 1950), nicknamed "Gooseneck Bill", was an African American
African American
African Americans are citizens or residents of the United States who have at least partial ancestry from any of the native populations of Sub-Saharan Africa and are the direct descendants of enslaved Africans within the boundaries of the present United States...

 politician and businessman of great influence in Texas
Texas
Texas is the second largest U.S. state by both area and population, and the largest state by area in the contiguous United States.The name, based on the Caddo word "Tejas" meaning "friends" or "allies", was applied by the Spanish to the Caddo themselves and to the region of their settlement in...

.

Early life

Named after William Shakespeare
William Shakespeare
William Shakespeare was an English poet and playwright, widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's national poet and the "Bard of Avon"...

 and James Madison
James Madison
James Madison, Jr. was an American statesman and political theorist. He was the fourth President of the United States and is hailed as the “Father of the Constitution” for being the primary author of the United States Constitution and at first an opponent of, and then a key author of the United...

, he was born in College Mound, Texas little more than a year after the end of the American Civil War
American Civil War
The American Civil War was a civil war fought in the United States of America. In response to the election of Abraham Lincoln as President of the United States, 11 southern slave states declared their secession from the United States and formed the Confederate States of America ; the other 25...

. His father, George McDonald from Tennessee, was once owned by Confederate General Nathan Bedford Forrest
Nathan Bedford Forrest
Nathan Bedford Forrest was a lieutenant general in the Confederate Army during the American Civil War. He is remembered both as a self-educated, innovative cavalry leader during the war and as a leading southern advocate in the postwar years...

, according to the Dallas Morning News. His mother was Flora Scott McDonald of Alabama, described by one source as a "free woman" and another as a "former slave". George McDonald was a farmer and blacksmith. Flora died when William was a child, and George married Belle Crouch.

As a teenager, William went to work for rancher and lawyer Captain Z. T. Adams, who began teaching him about business and law. Graduating from high school in 1884, with the help of Adams and others, he attended Roger Williams University
Roger Williams University (Nashville, Tennessee)
Roger Williams University in Nashville, Tennessee was an historically black institution of higher learning. It was created in 1866 as an educational facility for newly freed slaves. It was affiliated with the American Baptist denomination. It was closed in 1929 was involved in mergers that...

 in Nashville, Tennessee
Tennessee
Tennessee is a U.S. state located in the Southeastern United States. It has a population of 6,346,105, making it the nation's 17th-largest state by population, and covers , making it the 36th-largest by total land area...

.

Career

After graduation, he took the position of principal of an African American high school in Forney, Texas
Forney, Texas
Forney is a city in Kaufman County, Texas, United States and has been named by the Texas legislature as the "Antique Capital of Texas". The population was 5,588 at the 2000 census...

 for several years. He married one of the teachers, Alice Gibson.

In 1892, he was elected to the Republican Party of Texas
Republican Party of Texas
The Republican Party of Texas is one of the two major political parties in the U.S. State of Texas. It is affiliated with the United States Republican Party. The State Chairman is Steve Munisteri, a retired attorney and businessman from Houston, and the Vice-Chair is Melinda Fredricks of Conroe....

's state executive committee. He was a power in state politics for over thirty years as a leader of the "Black and Tan" faction, teaming up with businessman Ned Green
Edward Howland Robinson Green
Edward Howland Robinson "Ned" Green , also known as Colonel Green, was an American businessman, the only son of the notorious miser Hetty Green . He was also noted for his stamp and coin collections.-Biography:Edward Green was the first of two children of Hetty and Edward Henry Green...

, the son of the wealthiest woman in America
Hetty Green
Hetty Green , nicknamed "The Witch of Wall Street" , was an American businesswoman, remarkable for her frugality during the Gilded Age, as well as for being the first American woman to make a substantial impact on Wall Street.-Birth and early years:She was born Henrietta Howland Robinson in New...

. At the 1896 Republican National Convention
1896 Republican National Convention
The 1896 National Convention of the Republican Party of the United States was held in a temporary structure south of the St. Louis City Hall in Saint Louis, Missouri, from June 16 to June 18, 1896....

, McDonald was given the unflattering nickname "Gooseneck Bill" by a Dallas Morning News reporter on account of the shape of his neck. When his faction was driven from power in 1900 by the "Lily Whites", he turned his efforts to business, though he retained an interest in politics.

He moved to Fort Worth in 1906 and founded the Fraternal Bank and Trust Company, the city's first African-American-owned bank. His strong connections to African American fraternal organizations (he was elected Right Worshipful Grand Secretary of the African American Texas Masons
Freemasonry
Freemasonry is a fraternal organisation that arose from obscure origins in the late 16th to early 17th century. Freemasonry now exists in various forms all over the world, with a membership estimated at around six million, including approximately 150,000 under the jurisdictions of the Grand Lodge...

in 1899, a post he kept for 50 years, and was also the Supreme Grand Chief of the Seven Stars of Consolidation of America) got him much of their business and was a key factor in the bank's success. With their deposits, he was able to provide loans that African American entrepreneurs of the segregated era had difficulty obtaining from white-owned banks. He became, according to the Dallas Morning News, "probably Texas' first black millionaire."

He died on July 5, 1950 in Fort Worth and was buried in Trinity Cemetery. He was survived by his fifth wife; his only child, a son, predeceased him by thirty years.
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