Dallas Black History Timeline from Heritage Park, Shotgun House, October 2017

The following Black History Timeline for Dallas was photographed in October 2017 as it was presented on the walls of the Shotgun House in Dallas Heritage Village. As any timeline it reflects decisions about interpretations of history and could include many more dates and people.  It is a wonderful start!   Some additions to the history have been typed below between the photos taken.

May 27, 1853 a slave known as Jane Elkins became the first woman executed by hanging after a trial in Texas. See blog posting. A handwritten record of that legal action is on microfilm in the Dallas Central Library. She was estimated to be 53 years old and had been hired out by her owner to care for two children of a widower she ultimately hit in the head with an axe.  There was no defense against murder for rape. When asked to comment at her trial she said nothing. 

(To show the atmosphere at the time: In 1855 another slave, age 19 named Celia in Missouri, had a defense lawyer who actively used the rape defense in her defense for the murder of her owner who had regularly raped her since she was 14.  She gave birth to two children.  The appeal went to the Missouri Supreme Court and her conviction stood. She had a still birth in jail.  She was hung on December 21, 1855.)

Dallas Martyr's Park and John F. Kennedy

In 1860 three Black men were murdered on the banks of the Trinity River near downtown Dallas by a crowd with no trial and no ability to defend themselves against false charges involving "insurrection" and burning building in Dallas. But these were not the first public hangings of slaves in Dallas. Seven years earlier Jane Elkins had been hung near the jailhouse within a block of Courthouse Square where "Old Red" now stands.  It was after killing her overseer. He had probably either sexually molested, or attempted to molest, either her, or one of her children, or maybe a grandchild. That was the only way to stop such abuse.  She probably knew she would be executed. She said nothing at her trial and was never given an attorney. See https://billbetzen.blogspot.com/2017/11/jane-elkins-black-female-about-age-53.html. 

There are many martyrs who should be remembered in Dallas Martyr's Park!

In 1991 the land near where the 1860 hangings happened, and only 2 blocks from Courthouse Square, was renamed Martyr's Park.  It is downtown Dallas to the Northside of Elm street as you drive west and go under the triple underpass under the railroads.

This week a long-overdue article was written asking why more of this history is unknown, why is this history hidden?  See that Dallas Morning News article at https://www.dallasnews.com/opinion/commentary/2017/10/06/dallas-hates-erasing-history-much-anyone-know-park-three-slaves-hanged .


The above map shows where Martyr's Park is located:

It is very appropriate that it is simply on the "other side of the tracks" from the tragic location of the J. F. Kennedy Assassination.  President Kennedy had introduced what became the Civil Rights Act of 1964 to the nation on June 11, 1963 in a national radio address. (Listen to it at Televised Address to the Nation on Civil Rights | JFK Library) He changed the basic civil rights issues from legal issues into moral issues.  Remember, this was when everything was segregated by race: schools, neighborhoods, lunch counters.  Tragically, his death within 6 months probably helped speed the signing of this monumental legislation within 9 months of his 11-22-63 death.  The Civil Rights Act of 1964 was signed on July 2, 1964. It was followed on August 6th of 1965 by the Voting Rights Act. (https://www.nps.gov/nr/travel/civilrights/prize.htm)

If Dallas were to build the long-overdue memorial for Martyr's Park, they could include the many who died due to the racism that had plagued the US for centuries.  This would include the three men who died in 1860, and others publicly killed at gatherings in Dallas such as Jane Elkins "legally executed" just 7 years earlier, May 27th of 1853, as a focus. A Historical Marker to the JFK work to start the process toward the Civil Rights Act and the Voting Rights Act should be placed on the east side entrance to the pedestrian tunnel under the railroad tracks. 

A Black History Timeline, similar to the one now in the Shotgun House at Dallas Heritage Park, could be placed into the walkway under the railroad track.  It could be well lit so people could easily follow Black History back to 1860.  This would illustrate the painful history leading up to  President Kennedy's 6/11/63 national radio address on Civil Rights.  

See photos from the location below to better explain.

The 1853 hanging of Jane Elkins on Dallas Courthouse Square was the first legal execution of a woman in Texas.  She had no lawyer. Judge John H. Reagon handled her trial and ordered her death. He went on to become the Confederate Postmaster and has a Dallas school named after him. Austin Texas removed his name from the high school named for him there.

This is Martyr's Park and the area surrounding it.  It is an open canvas for Dallas to write on and preserve an accurate record of our history, and our dreams for the future.  Done well it will become a major tourist attraction in its own right.

Other opinions are welcome as to the accuracy of the position of the "X" in the above photo.  Much has changed.

Dallas ISD Magnet Admission Policy, two change recommendations

Magnet School Admission Policy in DISD needs two changes.  Find them in the text, in red, below.

The most popular DISD magnets continue to be reported as having valuable places denied to lifelong, talented DISD students.  These are places that are instead going to students who have never attended DISD, or who live outside DISD and were able to attend due to fraudulent applications and the renting of vacant apartments inside DISD to gain admission to our best magnets.

The most valuable lesson DISD must make certain all students receive is honesty.  We must design our policy to presume the truth.  Therefore, recommendation number one is to add one sentence on page two of the policy after the number 4 in the text wherein it states:

"For each magnet program, all qualified in-District students shall be served before any out-of-District student may gain admission into that magnet program. Proof of residence shall be submitted each year.”  Then add this sentence: ”If this proof of residence is at any time found to be misleading or false, a student is subject to immediate dismissal from the magnet program."

If anyone complains about this addition, DISD should simply say that if honesty is a problem that needs to be talked about.  Otherwise this change should affect nobody.

After that sentence this addition is recommended:
These two changes will allow the ethnic and racial balance to be regained that at one time was enjoyed at schools like Booker T. Washington before the Federal over-site ended.  These changes will more directly serve lifelong DISD students in the process.  

The second recommendation is on page one of current policy where it states:

“Seats shall be awarded to District students based on the following formula:

1. Thirty percent of the seats awarded District-wide by rank ordering applicants based on overall criteria score. These students shall be chosen solely on the basis of merit without consideration of feeder pattern or sibling status.”

”All criteria scores will be increased by one point for every year a DISD student attended DISD prior to application, including the current year."

This will increase the potential for life-long DISD students to be accepted.  It will lessen the chances of poverty and inability to secure private professional music and art lessons stopping an admission for an otherwise talented student, a student whose interest and talent survived underfunded arts programs in DISD middle schools.