Post-Civil War Black Migration and Settlement in Dallas

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Dallas' black history became realized in the post-Civil War era. After the war many blacks moved west to the DFW area looking for work in the train yards of Dallas, Fort Worth, and Denton. Many others built small rural agricultural communities outside these cities. More than 30 black communities have been documented in early Dallas. The 10th Street and the Queen City neighborhoods in South Dallas have been preserved. Little Egypt gave way for a northeast Dallas development. Frogtown gave way to the West End Business district. The Prairie, once the core of black life near downtown has fallen prey to urban renewal. It is now a highway interchange. The following are some of the more known early black communities in the area. Bear Creek (Irving) …show more content…

By the close of Reconstruction, when it was incorporated into Dallas proper -- Freedman's Town contained at least 500 citizens. By the late 19th century, the area was known as the North Dallas Freedman's Town. The name of the community has been changed. Originally known as Freedman's Town, by the early twentieth century it was more commonly known to its own inhabitants as North Dallas and later still the "State-Thomas" Neighborhood incorporated into the city of Dallas at the close of Reconstruction in …show more content…

There are two developments usually are associated with the founding of Hamilton Park. • In 1950 several black residences in the South Dallas area were bombed. • In a January 1953 bond election the decision to demolish housing in black neighborhoods for the expansion of the municipal airport, Love Field, was approved. Although these events were important, several home builders had attempted to relieve the housing shortage well before the bombings began. They worked with the Dallas Negro Chamber of Commerce (now the Dallas Black Chamber of Commerce) to publicize African American' desperate overcrowding in the city. But strong opposition from adjacent white landowners in University Park and Highland Park defeated the largest and most attractive projects, and blacks rejected a 3,000-acre "riverbottom" site 5½ miles northwest of

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