Mural Unveiled in South Dallas to honor Juanita Craft
DALLAS — There is a new community tribute tonight for a Dallas civil rights icon, Juanita Jewel Craft.
Craft was the first black woman to vote in a public election in Dallas County and later served two terms on the Dallas City Council.
Friday, a mural of Craft by artist Lakeem Wilson was unveiled in her beloved South Dallas at the corner of Martin Luther King Junior Boulevard and Malcom X.
Craft was born on February 9, 1902, in Round Rock, Texas. By 1925 she was building a life in Dallas, and over the decades the former maid, seamstress and granddaughter of slaves would alter the fabric of this community.
Her former home on nearby Warren Avenue is now a museum, funded by the City of Dallas, that allows her legacy and advocacy to live on.
"When I walk into this house-- every time I'm inspired to continue making a difference, to try to make a bigger and better difference," explains Candace Thompson, Chair of the Friends of Juanita J. Craft Civil Rights House & Museum.
"We're located right here in the middle of the community, in sunny south Dallas. So it is kind of being a beacon of light, a beacon of hope, for others."
The simple, white frame house doesn't evoke images of a 'war room', but according to the history compiled and on display at the museum, that's exactly what it was.
Craft's South Dallas home was the local civil rights 'command central' where she organized campaigns to allow Blacks equal access to the ballot box, and public spaces like restaurants, movie theaters, public transportation and the State Fair of Texas.
"You know, we're here because of somebody else's struggle," explains Thompson, adding that Craft fought for the dignity and civil rights of all Americans.
"She was a human rights leader, you know, so there was a ramp for everyone in her heart...no one was left out."
Thompson points to a kitchen table preserved from those days where a future Supreme Court justice, Thurgood Marshall, would write speeches agreeing that it is history that we cannot lose.
The museum is a treasure trove of civil rights and personal history from the sewing machine that Craft used to support herself as a seamstress, to her timeless words of wisdom preserved on the walls.
And if those walls could talk, they'd probably say something that Craft would.
"We had no help in the government, we had no help in the communities as far as violence was concerned...that was how the NAACP was born."
Those words, spoken by Craft are just part of the museum's impressive collection and attention to telling her story.
In numerous interviews captured over the years, the civil rights giant reminds us of the daily indignities that were normalized in Dallas and throughout the Jim Crow South.
In one of the interviews she asks, "Why am I not permitted to sit on the bus anywhere I want to sit? Why am I denied the right to eat a meal in a first-class restaurant?"
Although South Dallas would over the decades become a predominantly black community, the 1950s homes near where Craft settled were bombed because Black families dared to cross Dallas' invisible and yet violent 'color line'.
In another interview recorded in January of 1982 in advance of her 80th birthday celebration at Fair Park Garden Center, Craft shared, "You take the Ku Klux Klan, I don't hate them. I feel sorry for those people. I don't hate people that have denied me rights that I'm supposed to have."
Her home, a community treasure, was almost lost in 2018. It was badly damaged when a pipe burst in the attic. But with support from the Junior League of Dallas, Friends of the Juanita Craft house, The City of Dallas and others, it reopened last year.
"It is our greatest hope that she'd be pleased with the work that we've all done in collaboration to uplift and uphold her legacy," shares Martine Elyse Philippe, Director of Dallas' Office of Arts & Culture.
"And as it relates to the youth, we certainly want this to be a safe space, a safe gathering space for the youth to learn all of the ways they can continue to contribute to the fabric of this community."
"We owe it to the next generation to let them know what we've all been through collectively," adds Thompson, "and how we can continue moving forward for a more equitable society."
Over the years, Juanita Craft's home hosted Presidents and neighborhood children called "Craft Kids". Children in whom she would instill a passion for moving our communities forward through education, advocacy and dogged determination.
Her words, spoken in 1982 in advance of an 80th birthday celebration, "I have kept the faith, I believe, and I still believe that someday... somebody's gonna say 'that old woman was a pretty good woman after all'."