By Terri Jo Ryan

Tribune-Herald staff writer

Although it was born as a trade school for freed slaves after the Civil War, Paul Quinn College’s focus on the arts went beyond the industrial variety.

The predominantly black institution, which called Waco home for most of its 135-year history, also taught music and sponsored a college choir that was an institution in this area for decades, according to alumna Louise People of Waco.

The legacy of the first musicians and vocal performers of the school, which moved to Dallas in 1990, will be celebrated in a public concert later this month in Waco.

The Paul Quinn College Choir of Dallas will perform at 4 p.m. Oct. 28 at St. Paul African-Methodist-Episcopal Church, 1302 Herring Ave. There is no admission charge, but donations are expected for the event, a fundraiser to help some former students fulfill a $10,000 pledge made to the school.

Clarence Bush, treasurer of the Cen-Tex Paul Quinn Alumni and Ex- Students Association, said the local group is $3,000 short on its annual pledge to the alma mater this year.

So the hope is that those in the greater Waco area who attended Paul Quinn, or are just fans of the religious choir, will help fill the gap.

The Paul Quinn College Choir’s “singing for its supper” is entirely in keeping with the school’s history, according to Alwyn Talbot of Waco, who was the college’s director of public relations from 1952 to 1957.

Talbot said the choir became “the main vehicle for exciting audiences” to donate to the school. The choir frequently toured inside and out of Texas to raise money for the college.

By the late 1940s, Talbot added, the choir’s reputation had grown to such proportions that it hosted its own radio program, “The Paul Quinn Hour,” at 9 a.m. Sundays on WACO-AM.

Many choir members have gone on to careers as music educators themselves. People, a 1957 graduate and current president of the Cen-Tex Alumni and Ex-Students Association, had a 38-year career in local public schools thanks to her training at Paul Quinn, she said.

“It is a rare occasion indeed for the Paul Quinn Choir to come back to Waco, and we hope to get many people from throughout Central Texas to come to this concert,” People said.

Current choir director Larry Willis said the concert will feature anthems, spirituals and gospel numbers from the 30-voice ensemble.

Sources: PQC.edu, Handbook of Texas Online, The Tiger yearbooks of Paul Quinn College.