William “Gooseneck Bill” McDonald built a Black business empire in Texas when the system fought to stop him

How one man turned brickmaking, banking, and political power into a blueprint for Black economic self-determination under Jim Crow.

William McDonald entered the world in 1866, just months after the Civil War ended. He was born into a Texas landscape still struggling to reconcile freedom with its deeply rooted racial hierarchy. Born near College Mound in Kaufman County to formerly enslaved parents, his early life was shaped by poverty and the fragile stability of Reconstruction. His mother died while he was still a young child, leaving his father, George McDonald, to raise him alongside extended family. Even in these conditions, McDonald quickly developed a reputation for sharp intellect. As a result, absorbing lessons from school and from the world around him.

His first mentors were usually local laborers, farmers, and Blacksmiths. However, his most influential early guide was Captain Z. T. Adams, a white rancher and attorney who recognized McDonald’s intelligence. Adams provided informal training in business and law—skills that would prove critical as McDonald navigated the economic limitations placed on Black Texans. By the time he reached adolescence, McDonald had shifted from cowboy duties to academic excellence, completing high school in 1884 at a time when such an achievement for Black youth in rural Texas was rare. His commitment to learning signaled an ambition that extended far beyond the boundaries of the society that tried to contain him.

With financial support from Adams and others impressed by his talent, McDonald attended Roger Williams University in Nashville, Tennessee. It was here that he gained exposure to broader ideas about education, Black uplift, and post-Reconstruction politics. When he returned home, he became a high school principal in Forney, pushing for improvements within a segregated system that underfunded Black students. Although the role placed him in a position of leadership, it also revealed the limits of advancement for educated Black Southerners—limits he soon grew determined to overcome.

From Teacher to Entrepreneur in a Segregated Economy

By the 1890s, McDonald began moving toward business ownership, motivated by the same barriers that kept Black teachers underpaid and Black schools under-resourced. His transition into brickmaking was strategic: construction was booming in Texas, and building materials were in high demand. Though operating in a field dominated by white-owned companies, McDonald built a successful brick-manufacturing enterprise by mastering both the craft and the logistics. His bricks supplied projects across the region, and his meticulous habit of craning his long neck to inspect every detail earned him the nickname “Gooseneck Bill.”

The success of his brick business demonstrated two truths: Black Texans could outmaneuver a hostile economy, and McDonald’s eye for opportunity extended far beyond one industry. As his profits grew, he expanded into real estate, acquiring property in areas where Black residents were often blocked from ownership. His investments laid early foundations for generational wealth, proving that Black economic advancement was achievable even in the face of systemic exclusion.

At the same time, McDonald gained influence in political circles. While teaching had given him a platform within his community, entrepreneurship provided something deeper—capital. In the segregated South, financial independence meant freedom from white economic retaliation, and McDonald used this leverage to enter Republican Party leadership. His rise reflected not just personal ambition, but a desire to carve out space in a political landscape designed to silence Black voices.

Political Power in the Battleground of Jim Crow Texas

McDonald’s political ascent began in the early 1890s, when he became a force in Texas’s Republican Party. As part of the “Black and Tan” faction, he argued for shared leadership between Black community members and white allies. His influence was strengthened by his alliance with E. H. R. “Ned” Green, the wealthy businessman whose support amplified McDonald’s voice. While white supremacist factions worked to push Black voters out of the political process, McDonald fought to keep them in, recognizing that economic progress required political representation.

He served on the state executive committee, attended multiple national conventions, and became both temporary and permanent chairman of the Texas Republican Party in the late 1890s. His presence in these spaces was a direct challenge to the Lily-White movement, which sought to erase Black influence from the party entirely. McDonald was strategic, navigating internal conflicts while using party structures to advocate for Black Texans.

Yet the political tide turned as poll taxes, white primaries, and voter suppression laws gutted Black political power. By 1906, the Black electorate in Texas had been nearly erased. McDonald adapted. Rather than retreating, he shifted into independent politics and backed candidates—Democratic, Progressive, or Republican—based on who he believed would support Black advancement. His political flexibility demonstrated a pragmatic approach to power, rooted not in party loyalty but in community uplift.

Prince Hall Freemasonry and a Business Empire Built Through Brotherhood

Parallel to his political leadership, McDonald’s rise through Prince Hall Freemasonry became one of the most significant engines of his financial empire. Joining in 1890, he ascended to Grand Secretary by 1899—a position he held for nearly half a century. Through the Masonic network, he oversaw insurance programs, a cotton mill, publishing ventures, and eventually a bank. The lodge functioned not just as a fraternal organization but as a powerful economic institution serving Black Texans barred from mainstream financial systems.

McDonald realized early that Masonic lodges lacked a secure, centralized bank for their funds. Working with the organization, he helped establish the Fraternal Bank and Trust Company in Fort Worth, ultimately becoming its manager. The bank soon became the primary financial institution for Black residents across the region, offering loans that white-owned banks routinely denied. Under his leadership, it grew stable enough to weather the Great Depression and even lend money to struggling white banks—a quiet inversion of Texas’s racial power dynamics.

This achievement was extraordinary in an era where segregation restricted everything from business permits to financing opportunities. McDonald’s ability to maintain a solvent, respected financial institution positioned him as a pillar of Black economic life in Texas, linking fraternal leadership with community-scale development.

The Jim Hotel and a Safe Haven for Black Travelers

Among McDonald’s most visible projects was the Jim Hotel, a fifty-room, Black-owned establishment he built in downtown Fort Worth in the late 1920s. Named for his wife, Jimmie Strickland, the hotel provided lodging, entertainment, and dignity for Black travelers during the height of segregation. Listed in The Green Book, it became one of the region’s most important safe havens for guests who were otherwise denied accommodations.

The hotel soon expanded from lodging to a cultural hub. Its nightclub attracted major artists—Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington, Cab Calloway, Billie Holiday, and B.B. King among them. The space became a nexus of Black social and artistic life, drawing crowds that strengthened Fort Worth’s cultural footprint. Through the Jim Hotel, McDonald demonstrated that economic development could have a cultural dimension, offering joy and community at a time when public spaces were rigidly segregated.

The hotel also symbolized a certain pride: a Black businessman building a landmark property in the restrictive landscape of Jim Crow. Its three-story presence in downtown Fort Worth challenged the notion that Black enterprise belonged only in the margins.

Wealth, Philanthropy, and the Responsibilities He Refused to Ignore

As McDonald’s wealth grew, so did his commitment to community uplift. His influence extended into education, where he funded schools and scholarships; into business, where he supported Black entrepreneurs with loans and mentorship; and into civic life, where he helped organize state fairs and public events centered on Black achievement. His philanthropy reflected a philosophy shaped by Reconstruction ideals: that progress for one meant little unless it extended to many.

He was also a local employer, property owner, and political advisor whose presence altered the opportunities available to Black Texans in Fort Worth and beyond. His bank helped residents secure homes, start businesses, and build generational wealth in defiance of the discriminatory practices that barred them from white institutions. Through every venture, McDonald emphasized not just business success but economic autonomy—an approach that challenged the dependency structures Jim Crow attempted to enforce.

Despite this success, he faced threats, harassment, and pressure from white supremacists who viewed Black wealth as a direct challenge to racial order. His ability to continue building, investing, and leading demonstrated a resilience that shaped the region’s economic landscape long after his death.

Conclusion

William “Gooseneck Bill” McDonald’s life charts a path rarely highlighted in mainstream discussions of Jim Crow Texas. He was a business owner, political strategist, banker, fraternal leader, and community builder who used every tool available to push back against exclusion. His achievements were not simply personal triumphs; they represented a collective victory for Black Texans who saw in him a blueprint for possibility.

First, he built a financial institution when Black people were barred from credit. Then, he created a hotel when segregation denied lodging. After that, he cultivated political power when the state worked to silence Black voters. And through each effort, he demonstrated that economic independence could be a form of resistance, reshaping the boundaries of what Black communities could claim in hostile terrain.

McDonald’s legacy remains etched into the cultural and economic memory of Texas. His story stands as a reminder that Black wealth-building has always required extraordinary resilience—and that, even in eras of violent backlash and structural barriers, visionaries like McDonald carved out futures that continue to inspire the fight for economic justice today.

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