William Madison McDonald

William Madison McDonald (June 22, 1866 – July 5, 1950), nicknamed "Gooseneck Bill", was an American politician, businessman, and banker of great influence in Texas during the late nineteenth century. Part of the Black and Tan faction, by 1892 he was elected to the Republican Party of Texas's state executive committee, as temporary chairman in 1896, and as permanent state chairman in 1898.

During this period, McDonald was also elected as top leader of two black fraternal organizations, serving as Grand Secretary of the Grand Lodge of Texas, Prince Hall, a historically African American Masonic organization, for 50 years. In 1906 he founded Fort Worth's first African American-owned bank as an enterprise of the state Masons; under his management, the bank survived the Great Depression. His father, George McDonald, was a former slave from Tennessee. He was once held by Confederate General Nathan Bedford Forrest, according to a 2008 report by the Dallas Morning News. and by another as a "former slave." George McDonald was a farmer and blacksmith. After Flora died when William was a child, his father married Belle Crouch.

McDonald became active in the Republican Party and encouraged blacks to vote; he helped organize the party in Kaufman County and the region. In 1892, McDonald was elected to the Republican Party of Texas's state executive committee.

Through these years, McDonald had also been active in black fraternal organizations, which developed rapidly throughout Texas and the South after the war as blacks established independent networks. He was elected as the Supreme Grand Chief of the Seven Stars of Consolidation of America.

"Lily White" Republicans essentially drove the "Black and Tan" faction out of power in the party in 1900. McDonald and the Black and Tans temporarily regained power in 1912, before losing it again. McDonald continued to be a notable figure in the national Republican Party, however, attending many national conventions.

McDonald turned his energies to business, though he retained an interest in politics. He moved to Fort Worth in 1906, where he became manager of the Fraternal Bank and Trust Company, founded by the Masons as the city's first African-American-owned bank. For a time, it was the bank used by most of the black Mason chapters in the state. With their deposits, McDonald had capital for providing loans to African-American entrepreneurs and could encourage development of their businesses. In that segregated era, blacks had great difficulty gaining financing from white-owned banks. Under McDonald's management, the bank survived the Great Depression, when many other banks went under. According to a 2008 report by the Dallas Morning News, McDonald was "probably Texas' first black millionaire."

Disappointed with Texas Republicans, McDonald increasingly exercised independence in supporting presidential candidates: favoring Progressive Robert M. La Follette, Sr. and Democrats Al Smith and Franklin D. Roosevelt. He returned to the Republican Party to support Thomas E. Dewey in his presidential bid against Harry Truman.

McDonald died on July 5, 1950, in Fort Worth, where he was buried in Oakwood Cemetery. He was survived by his fifth wife. His only child, Harry Manack McDonald, had predeceased him by thirty years.

Legacy and honors

In 2002, Forney, Texas, erected a historical marker to acknowledge native son McDonald and his achievements; its text includes the following: "Throughout his life, McDonald was a leader in the struggle for social justice, advocating persistence and civic and moral responsibility as the steps to equality."