JIM AND WINNIE SHANKLE: THE LOVE THAT HELPED BUILD A BLACK TEXAS COMMUNITY
Slavery tore their family apart. Jim Shankle risked his life to reunite them. After emancipation, Jim and Winnie helped build a community where Black families could own land and shape their future.
Shankleville, Texas, is the name of the place. Jim was born enslaved in 1811, and Winnie in 1814. Their family was torn apart when Winnie and her three children were taken from Mississippi to Texas. According to the history preserved by the Shankleville community, Jim escaped and traveled about 400 miles to find them. He moved at night, searched for food, and crossed waterways on a journey that could have ended in capture or death.
The community’s account recalls their reunion by a spring. Winnie secretly brought Jim food before telling her enslaver that Jim was there. The enslaver arranged to purchase Jim, and the couple remained together. Their reunion occurred while both were still enslaved. Texas Historical Commission.
Historical sources generally agree on the number of children but do not always list their names consistently. Some family and local-history accounts connect the family to names such as Mary, George, Henry, Houston, John, Harriet, and others, but a complete, universally verified list is difficult to compile because of the limited records from the era of slavery and Reconstruction.
Then emancipation opened the possibility of building a different life.
In 1867, Jim and Winnie began buying land in Newton County, East Texas. Alongside Stephen McBride, they helped lay the foundation for Shankleville. Their combined landholdings eventually totaled more than 4,000 acres. This was a major achievement. Jim and Winnie had been denied freedom, property, education, and legal family security under slavery. Within a few years of emancipation, they became landowners and community leaders.
The 1870 census reportedly showed Jim with approximately $200 in real estate $125 in personal property
That census was especially important because it was one of the first federal censuses to identify formerly enslaved people by name as free citizens. That land supported farms, churches, mills, and schools. McBride built McBride College, which operated from 1883 to 1909, placing education at the heart of the community. Shankleville Historical Society
Consider what that meant. People who had been treated as property became property owners. Families whose labor had enriched enslavers could now work toward something their children might inherit. A farm could provide food and income. A school could open doors for the next generation. A church could offer a place to worship, gather, and organize. Together, these institutions grounded freedom in everyday life. Winnie belongs at the center of this history alongside Jim. Her endurance and their shared work helped make the community possible. Stephen McBride’s contributions to land ownership and education also belong in the story. Winnie Shankle died in 1883. Jim Shankle died in 1888.
Shankleville reminds us that Black history lives in rural communities as well as great cities in the land families purchased, the schools they built, and the names their descendants preserved.
Descendants of the Taken Ones, we remember Jim and Winnie Shankle and Stephen McBride because freedom also has a history of builders. Jim’s journey helped reunite a family. Their work after emancipation helped give generations a place to belong. Jim and Winnie’s descendants remained connected to Shankleville for generations. Their family lines include the Shankle, McBride, Odom, Rollins, Lewis, and related families, although the exact relationships require careful genealogical documentation from original records.
One well-known descendant is Michael Strahan, former NFL player, television personality, and Good Morning America co-anchor. The PBS program Finding Your Roots documented that James and Winnie Shankle were among his third-great-grandparents. (PBS)
The program showed that Strahan’s ancestors helped create not only a family but also a prosperous Black settlement with land, businesses, schools, churches, and community institutions.
Other descendants and family members, including members of the Odom and Clay families, have worked to preserve Shankleville's history. Descendant-led preservation has been central to keeping the story alive.
Remember their names. Remember Shankleville. Thank you for your time. To support the channel. Please like, share, and subscribe, and pass this along to your family and friends. Remember: information kept to yourself is lost over time, but shared information becomes enduring knowledge. People who lose control of their history can be led to believe they never contributed anything.