We recently wrapped up our Dallas Neighborhood Stories project in partnership with the Dallas Public Library (DPL) with three digital Community History exhibits published to DPL’s blog, Booked Solid. The communities in focus were West Dallas, South Dallas, and Red Bird.
We began each community history effort in late 2019 with one full day of archiving at the local library branch, which led to multiple follow-up interviews and one and one meetings with longtime community members. This project is a small piece of a process that will take years, even generations of Dallasites, to truly give justice to each neighborhood’s robust history.
Check the exhibits out at each link below - and be sure to share with folks who might be interested!
South Dallas Community History
The contributions, which range from documentation of West Dallas residents’ struggle against lead contaminated soil to memorabilia from Carter High School in Red Bird, will help to reshape a narrative that has long been dominated by the history of white Dallasites. This work is an effort to strengthen awareness of our city, celebrate the diverse places that give it character and texture, and create platforms for active dialogue about its history and future.
The West Dallas portion of the project was featured in KERA News.
With these small exhibitions, we hope to encourage more people to record their personal history with the Library and help expand the collection.
See a preview from each neighborhood below:
This project was funded in part by the National Endowment for the Humanities and Humanities Texas.