Sitting right across the street from our campus is significant black history. The Tenth Street Freedman’s Town is a historic African American community that has been recognized by the city of Dallas as one of the country’s only intact freedmen’s towns.
A freedman’s town—or ‘freedom town’—is a community settled and cultivated by former slaves following their emancipation after the civil war. Besides Tenth Street, there are other areas of Dallas that were once freedom towns, one of the most notable ones being early Deep Ellum. The first African Americans to live in what is now Oak Cliff were more than likely some three slaves that accompanied slave owner George Lawan Leonard and his son from one county to another in the winter of 1843. A report in July of 1844 confirms the three slaves were present in the West Trinity zone at the time of the 1844 survey and were assumed to be owned by George Leonard. When William S. Beatty deeded 10 acres of his survey for a public cemetery west of the Trinity in 1846, four settlers on the west side of the Trinity owned a total of twelve slaves, “Negro Property” valued at $4,310. Tax records show that David Cameron and William H. Hord each owned four slaves, while George Lawan Leonard owned three slaves and Aaron Overton owned a single slave. Of these four men, George Leonard was the first to arrive.
Beatty maintained that his burial ground was to “remain forever open to all.” Slaves were buried in the end of the cemetery along the street that became Tenth Street. Next week, I’ll cover the history of that cemetery, now known as “Oak Cliff Cemetery.” Following Emancipation in 1865, freedmen moved into Texas cities from all across the South, some seeking family who’d been taken west during the Civil War. All were searching for opportunity. Among those who settled south of the “Negro Burial Ground” was Arch Miller, who came to Texas as William Brown Miller’s slave in 1847.
Sales in the planned city of Oak Cliff began in the fall of 1887, but not for former African American slaves. However, lying outside of the original Oak Cliff, land between the burial ground and creeks was a free-for-all. W.J. Betterton then bought the four acres from William Brown Miller in the fall of 1887 and extended Tenth Street. The Black urban ownership class in Oak Cliff began with Anthony Boswell’s purchase of lots in the winter of 1888. Among those who bought lots in what became known as “Miller’s Four Acres” were trustees of El Bethel Missionary Baptist Church, another landmark I’ll discuss later this month.
Black ownership was largely restricted to the four acres until ‘The Panic of 1893,’ an economic depression that lasted eight months. Investors began selling unnecessary lots to anyone with the means to buy them. Black Tenth Street grew west into the original Oak Cliff, bringing a mix of businesses and residences that reached its peak during the Jazz Age. In 1903, the first colored public elementary school in Dallas, later renamed after N.W. Harllee opened—this’ll be the final place discussed in this series. Alumni include actor and 1960 Olympic gold medal decathlete Rafer Johnson and blues guitarist Aaron Thibeaux “T-Bone” Walker.
The construction of Clarendon Drive and R.L. Thornton Freeway in the 40s and 50s contributed to the erasure and demolition of significant businesses and homes in Tenth Street. Despite this, the National Park Service recognized the Tenth Street Historic District on the National Register of Historic Places in 1994. The registration attributes demolition as the neighborhood’s main challenger. Rather than major renovation or remodeling, these families have had to face the adversaries of gentrification and displacement at the hands of city officials for decades. In recent years, neighborhood-led initiatives have been introduced to put its current residents at the forefront of Tenth Street’s future.
