Skip to content

Unheeded in death but helping others

Col. John McKee's vision of his legacy, meticulously recorded in his will, was breathtaking: A garrisonlike naval academy would grace the bank of the Delaware River in Bristol. A bronze replica of the colonel on horseback would survey the boys who traversed the integrated campus. Embossed on their brass buttons would be the name of McKee, said to be the richest African American at his death in 1902.

Published