Dallas, Texas, a city rich in history and culture, holds a significant place in the narrative of African Americans. From the establishment of freedmantowns to the fight for civil rights, the contributions and experiences of African Americans have shaped the city's identity. This article explores key aspects of African American history in Dallas, highlighting landmarks, communities, and the ongoing legacy of this vibrant population.
Dallas Skyline
Early Communities and Freedmantowns
Soon after learning of their emancipation in 1865, Blacks across the state began settling in groups, often outside of city limits where they felt safer from a population still reeling from the loss of the Civil War. In Dallas, African American communities, known as freedmantowns, began springing up both within and outside of the city proper. Because of segregation, freedmantowns typically grew into self-sustaining communities.
Residents of North Dallas, located three miles north of today’s Pacific Avenue/Central Expressway intersection, established churches, schools, stores, and clinics. Several of these institutions remain influential today, including but not limited to, St. Paul United Methodist, New Hope Baptist, and Booker T. Washington High School. One of the first acts of North Dallas residents was to purchase land for a cemetery (now venerated with the Freedman Memorial) near today’s Central Expressway and Lemmon Avenue. Shortly thereafter, Emanu-el, Calvary, and Greenwood were established next to the freedman burial ground.
Like North Dallas, African American communities elsewhere were expanding, but with segregation well entrenched, Blacks were not free to live wherever they chose. By the 1940s, though, many were under pressure to relocate for various reasons. With so few options, they had no choice but to move near the White neighborhoods in southern Dallas. Sadly, several were ‘welcomed’ with bombings on their front porch.
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Key Landmarks and Institutions
Today, evidence of the African American legacy is visible throughout Dallas. North Dallas was lost due to the development of Uptown, but St. Paul United Methodist, Booker T. Washington High School, and the Moreland YMCA (now the Dallas Black Dance Theatre) stand as reminders of an enclave that was once a vibrant center of Dallas’ Black population. The architectural work of William Sydney Pittman can be viewed at the Knights of Pythias building, 2551 Elm Street and the St. James AME Church, 624 N. Good Latimer. The building of Dr. Benjamin Bluitt, an early 1900s African American doctor, remains at 2036-38 Commerce. The Tenth Street Neighborhood Historic District is the last intact freedmantown in Dallas, but many other early neighborhoods and planned communities have long endured.
Map of Dallas Freedmen's Towns
Bluitt Sanitarium
The Bluitt Sanitarium was the first hospital established for African American residents in Dallas. It was established in 1906 by Dr. Benjamin R. Bluitt (1864-1946), who was also the first African American surgeon in Texas. Bluitt was the son of former slaves, and moved to Dallas to practice medicine in the underserved black community in the city.
Many residents who lived in Dallas during the era of Segregation spoke of a “color line” in Downtown Dallas, which defined the boundaries between the mixed-race Deep Ellum neighborhood and the more predominantly white Central Business District. While you will not find any mention of a color line in city ordinances from the period, researchers have verified its existence and have placed the western boundary somewhere between South Harwood Street and present-day Central Expressway.
The Bluitt Sanitarium, the tan brick building located at 2034-38 Commerce Street, was built in 1904. It is the only building known to have been built, owned, and operated by black professionals this close to the color line. Many of the physicians and medical professionals who worked at Bluitt Sanitarium became prominent leaders within the black community and filled a crucial gap in medical care in Dallas. Bluitt relocated his medical practice further into Deep Ellum in 1914.
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Booker T. Washington High School
Located on the northern edge of downtown Dallas stands one of the preeminent African American Performing Arts schools in the country, Booker T. Washington High School. While the school was established in 1892 and has gone through several transformations, it wasn’t until 1922 that the school was moved to its current location to allow for the growing student body.
Celebrating many “firsts,” Booker T was the first Dallas school to broadcast a live football game on the radio and television, and was the first African-American school in the southwest to start a chapter of the National Honor Society. It remains the oldest African-American school in Dallas and has had a number of world renowned students including Erykah Badu, Norah Jones, Edie Brickell, Roy Hargrove and Elizabeth Mitchell. Near the school you can also find the historic Moorland YMCA.
Knights of Pythias Temple
The Beaux Arts style Knights of Pythias Temple at 2551 Elm Street served as a social, professional, and cultural center for Dallas’ African-American community from its opening in 1916 until 1939. The temple hosted lectures, meetings, conventions, and dances, as well as housed the offices of black professionals in the area. The structure was designed by William Sidney Pittman, son-in-law of Booker T. Washington, and stands as one of the few remaining early 20th century commercial structures in Dallas that was designed by a black architect. Union Bankers Insurance Company occupied the building from 1959 until the late 1990s. Workers are in the process of removing the non-original white paint from the façade.
Juanita J. Craft Civil Rights House
The City of Dallas was awarded a National Park Service Grant in the amount of $500,000 that will be used for major repairs to the Juanita J. Craft Civil Rights House! The home, a Dallas Landmark structure currently owned by the city, was damaged in 2018 by a burst pipe that caused major flooding and mold intrusion. The extensive damage necessitated gutting the home. The funds will go towards a $1 million project to restore the home and to open it to the public as a Civil Rights museum.
Juanita Jewel (Shanks) Craft was born in Round Rock, Texas in 1902 and was the granddaughter of former slaves. She moved to Dallas after receiving her teaching certificate at Samuel Huston College and, by 1925, was working as a maid at the Adolphus Hotel in Downtown Dallas. Starting in 1955, Craft led a protest against the State Fair of Texas for its policy of admitting blacks only one day out of the year. The leadership of Craft and other civil rights activists across the country eventually led to the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965. Craft’s former home in South Dallas is now an official Dallas Landmark, and prominent leaders such as Former President Lyndon B. Johnson and Martin Luther King, Jr. held meetings with her at this home. Craft was awarded the NAACP Golden Heritage Life Membership Award in 1978 and the Eleanor Roosevelt Humanitarian Award in 1984.
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Forest Theater
The Forest Theater in South Dallas (1918 Martin Luther King Blvd) opened in 1949 in a neighborhood that was predominately middle-class and Jewish at the time. However, the neighborhood demographics shifted dramatically over the next decade as White residents began to move out of South Dallas and into the surrounding suburbs and as homeownership among Black residents increased in the area. Originally a segregated Whites-only venue, the Forest Theater opened its doors to African American patrons in 1956.
By that time, construction of the new South Central Expressway (I-45) had already begun. The new highway fragmented the community, and disinvestment and persistent poverty also plagued the area. The Forest Theater continued to be used occasionally for special events and performances over the next forty years. South Dallas native and Grammy winning singer Erykah Badu leased the space from 2002 to 2008. Badu established an after-school program for inner-city youths, and also hosted live shows at the theater. The theater is vacant today, but there is hope. CitySquare purchased it in 2017, and the building is eligible to become an official City of Dallas Landmark.
The Civil Rights Movement in Dallas
At the same time, African Americans have had to fight for equality. As the civil rights movement took hold in the 1960s, various places became associated with this historic event. The H.L. Green store (formerly located in the Wilson Building at 1623 Main), was the site of demonstrations and was the first store in the city to desegregate their lunch counter. The home of Civil Rights activist, Juanita Craft stands at 2618 Warren where Martin Luther King, Jr. and Lyndon Johnson both met with Ms. Craft.
Although segregation was declared unconstitutional by the Supreme Court in 1954 as a result of the Brown v. Board of Education ruling, Dallas - like many Southern cities of the time - stubbornly held on to their policies of racial exclusion well into the next decade. In 1960, civil rights activists across the country began to stage peaceful sit-ins, a form of non-violent grassroots protest. While sit-ins had happened before in Oklahoma City and Wichita in 1958, the tactic gained widespread attention during a sit-in at a Woolworth lunch counter in Greensboro, North Carolina in 1960.
Dallas civil rights leaders such as Juanita Craft had already begun organizing protests at Dallas whites-only theaters in 1955 and, encouraged by the momentum of the Greensboro sit-in, began organizing members of the NAACP Dallas’ Youth Council to ramp up their efforts. Sit-ins, letter-writing campaigns, and protests at Dallas establishments such as HL Green, Titche-Goettinger, Neiman Marcus, the Majestic Theater, State Fair of Texas, public pools, and other Dallas businesses became more frequent.
Many people had televisions in their homes by 1960 and could watch the protests unfold across the country, and also witness the sometimes-violent police response. Public support for the protesters and desegregation grew as a result, and the sit-ins were ultimately successful.
The Green Book and Safe Travel
The Green Book, officially known as the Negro Motorist Green Book, was a travel guide produced from 1933-1966 that listed safe places for African American motorists to travel during a time when Jim Crow laws were in effect. When Green first wrote the guide, America’s highway system was rapidly developing. Roads like Highway 66 and the Lincoln Highway made it easier for Americans to travel long distance, but traveling on these roads could be risky for African American motorists who weren’t always familiar with the towns they were passing through.
“Sundown towns” - communities where black travelers were not welcome after sunset - were common during the Jim Crow era. The threat of harassment and refusal of services was always present in unfamiliar places. Dallas was one of the more difficult places to find establishments that would serve African Americans, but there were over 30 listings here throughout the years. Most of them were located in the area north of downtown, where a freedmans town established by former slaves during the Reconstruction era was located.
The thriving neighborhood, also known as ‘Short North Dallas’ was largely destroyed by the creation of Central Expressway, Woodall Rodgers Freeway, and by subsequent redevelopment projects over the years. One of the few remaining Green Book listed buildings, the Moorland YMCA (now the Dallas Black Dance Theater), was listed in the Green Book every year that Dallas was included in the publication. This building, along with the Triple A Ranch Motel in West Dallas (now called the Inn of the Dove), are the only two Dallas Green Book listings that are still standing.
NOTE: The Green Book did not list every establishment in the city that served Black customers.
The African American Museum of Dallas
Welcome to the African American Museum, Dallas! The African American Museum of Dallas stands as a beacon of culture, history, and art-dedicated to preserving and celebrating the rich heritage and achievements of African Americans. Founded in 1974 by visionary educator and museum leader Dr. Harry Robinson, Jr., the Museum is the only institution of its kind in the Southwestern United States. It holds one of the nation’s most extensive collections of African American art, artifacts, and historical archives, offering visitors an immersive journey through centuries of creativity, resilience, and impact. Located in the heart of Fair Park, the Museum is a vibrant hub for education, community engagement, and cultural enrichment.
African American Museum of Dallas
L’Afrique Market
If you’re looking for high-end African products that you can’t find anywhere else in the South Loop, L’Afrique Market is the place to shop. Owner Ibrahim Agoro is a first-generation immigrant originally from Nigeria. When he moved to the South Loop, he found few shops that carried ethnic products like Obiji, Ola-Ola plantains, Asiko spices, or Aboniki balm, and noticed that the stores were not run by Africans. Frustrated and determined, Agoro put matters into his own hands. By last September, things were finally coming into place, and Agoro was ready to open the store. A week before the grand opening, a woman knocked on the storefront’s door and expressed her appreciation for opening a shop with the products that she desperately needed.
Now, L’Afrique Market is celebrating its one-year anniversary. Over the course of the last year, the team has continued to sell hard-to-find products, and now offers curbside pickup and delivery services. As for what’s next: “The master plan for L’Afrique Market, my key idea, is to be as close [as possible] to the doorstep of every desired customer,” Agoro told me. He hopes for L’Afrique Market to become a franchise and to expand to Dallas, Houston, New York, and Atlanta. As Agoro and L’Afrique Market have made African products accessible to South Loop residents, he hopes to provide an identical service to other Black communities throughout the United States.
West African Markets
The vibrant, crowded and occasionally smelly street markets are the frontlines of authentic West Africa. Although these countries suffer high poverty rates, the street markets are where the farmers, fishermen and independent vendors go to hustle, cajole and bargain their way to a sale. Street markets from the urban to the rural live along the often unpaved, dirt sidewalks along busy, traffic-filled roads.
West African Markets
Table of Key Landmarks and Institutions in Dallas
| Landmark/Institution | Description |
|---|---|
| Bluitt Sanitarium | First hospital for African Americans in Dallas, established in 1906. |
| Booker T. Washington High School | One of the preeminent African American Performing Arts schools in the country. |
| Knights of Pythias Temple | Served as a social, professional, and cultural center for Dallas’ African-American community. |
| Juanita J. Craft Civil Rights House | Home of civil rights activist Juanita Craft, now being restored as a Civil Rights museum. |
| Forest Theater | Originally a segregated Whites-only venue, later opened to African American patrons. |
| African American Museum of Dallas | Dedicated to preserving and celebrating the rich heritage and achievements of African Americans. |
