James E. Shepard

James E. Shepard (November 3, 1875 – October 6, 1947) was an American pharmacist, civil servant and educator, the founder of what became the North Carolina Central University in Durham, North Carolina. He first established it as a private school for religious training in 1910 but adapted it as a school for teachers. He had a network of private supporters, including northern white philanthropists such as Olivia Slocum Sage of New York.

He served as the school's first president for nearly 40 years. By 1923, he secured state funding for it as a normal school, to continue the training of black teachers. After programs and classes were added to create a four-year curriculum, in 1925 it was renamed North Carolina College for Negroes, becoming the first liberal arts college in the nation for black students to be state-funded.

Shepard was born in Raleigh, North Carolina, the son of Rev. Augustus and Harriet Whitted Shepard. He received undergraduate and professional training at Shaw University, from which he graduated in 1894.

The following year, he married Annie Day Robinson. They had three daughters, all now deceased: Marjorie A. Shepard (1896-1992) of Durham and Annie Day Shepard Smith (1899-1977) of New Bern, North Carolina and Marion (1902-1903). Smith had two daughters, Annie Day Smith Donaldson and Carolyn Marie Smith Green; both daughters had children, and Green has grandchildren.

Shepard settled in the Hayti District, becoming one of the founders of development. He worked as a pharmacist in the community, and later as a civil servant, and religious educator. He became president of the school he founded, one originally intended to train clergy.

Shepard founded the private National Religious Training School and Chautauqua in the Hayti District in 1910. Originally, this institution was conceived as a center for religious training. Later, he renamed it the National Training School; it was supported by the philanthropy of Shepard’s numerous black and white friends in both the North and the South. These included Olivia Slocum Sage of New York.

The school provided professional development for black teachers of the Jim Crow era; education was considered a high calling in the black community in the drive for everyone to become literate. Teachers from the school taught in rural Durham County.

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