Oak Cliff's Freedman's Town Endures RoadyGoat

After emancipation in 1865, freed people including Arch Miller settled here on Cedar Creek, just south of a Black burial ground already on this ground. By 1887 the community took its name from Tenth Street. In January 1888, Anthony Boswell became one of the first Black landowners here, and church trustees bought property soon after. The neighborhood grew into a real town — homes, churches, businesses — built mostly between 1888 and 1947, on land that once ran close to 300 acres. Dallas named it a landmark district in 1993, and in 1994 it went on the National Register of Historic Places. Today Tenth Street is recognized as the largest and most intact freedman's town left in the United States — not in Fort Worth, as some accounts mistakenly say, but here in Oak Cliff, south of the Trinity River. Houses built by those families still stand on these streets today.

RoadyGoat →

Trinity River RoadyGoat

1690

As Interstate 45 pulls away from downtown Dallas, it bridges a river that has worn at least four different names. La Salle's French party crossed it in 1687 and called it the River of Canoes. The Caddo and the coastal peoples knew it as Arkikosa and Daycoa. Then in 1690 the Spaniard Alonso de Leon rode through chasing the ghost of La Salle's failed Texas colony, and he christened the water La Santisima Trinidad, the Most Holy Trinity. That is the name that stuck, even though the very next year another Spanish commander, Domingo Teran, tried to rename it the Encarnacion. Here is the part worth remembering: the whole expedition that gave this river its name only happened because Spain panicked over a handful of Frenchmen on the Texas coast. So the freeway you are riding crosses three hundred years of border anxiety, dressed up as a saint's day.

RoadyGoat →

Dallas, TX RoadyGoat

The naming of Dallas is shrouded in a bit of mystery. The official historical marker suggests it was named in honor of George M. Dallas, who served as Vice President of the United States. However, this is not universally accepted. Other theories propose the name might come from his brother, Commodore Alexander James Dallas, or even other relatives like Walter R. Dallas and James R. Dallas. A more distant possibility links the name to the village of Dallas in Moray, Scotland, drawing a parallel to how other Texas cities were named after ancestral origins. The precise origin remains a subject of debate.

Dealey Plaza - JFK Assassination

1963

President John F. Kennedy was assassinated while riding in his motorcade through Dealey Plaza on November 22, 1963.

Historical Marker →

Texas School Book Depository Building

1963

This site was originally owned by John Neely Bryan, the founder of Dallas. During the 1880s French native Maxime Guillot operated a wagon shop here. In 1894 the land was purchased by Phil L. Mitchell, president and director of the Rock Island Plow Company of Illinois. An office building for the firm's Texas division, known as the Southern Rock Island Plow Company, was completed here four years later. In 1901 the five-story structure was destroyed by fire. That same year, under supervision of the company vice president and general manager F. B. Jones, work was completed on this structure. Built to resemble the earlier edifice, it features characteristics of the commercial Romanesque Revival style. In 1937 the Carraway Byrd Corporation purchased the property. Later, under the direction of D. H. Byrd, the building was leased to a variety of businesses, including the Texas School Book Depository. On November 22, 1963, the building gained national notoriety when Lee Harvey Oswald allegedly shot and killed President John F. Kennedy from a sixth floor window as the presidential motorcade passed the site. Recorded Texas Historic Landmark - 1980

Historical Marker →

Parkland Hospital

1963

Dallas first opened a city hospital on Lamar street in 1874, moving to Maple Avenue in the 1890s. In 1913, a new state of the art facility was erected, reflecting a nationwide movement toward modern medical care. The new building was the source of development for the neighborhood as a medical center and also the first home to Southwestern Medical College (now the University of Texas Southwestern Medical School). In 1954, Parkland Hospital relocated to a new facility at 5201 Harry Hines Blvd, where it set standards in healthcare and in medical advances. On November 22, 1963, John F. Kennedy was taken to that facility following his assassination. Today, Parkland Hospital continues to be a leader in providing medical care to the needy.

Historical Marker → · 4.5 mi away

Kennedy Assassination

1963

On November 21, 1963, President John Fitzgerald Kennedy left Washington, D.C., for Texas to attend several official functions, to present his administration's views in personal speeches, and to help reunify the conservative and liberal wings of the Democratic party in Texas. He first flew to San Antonio to join Vice President Lyndon B. Johnson in dedicating the United States Air Force School of Aerospace Medicine, attended a testimonial dinner in Houston for United States representative Albert Thomas, then flew to Fort Worth and spent the night at Hotel Texas. On the morning of November 22 he addressed a breakfast sponsored by the Fort Worth Chamber of Commerce, then flew to Dallas, where began a motorcade trip in an open car with his wife Jacqueline (Bouvier) Kennedy, Governor John B. Connally , and the governor's wife, Idanell (Brill) Connally . The motorcade travelled through town toward the Dallas Trade Mart, where Kennedy was to speak at a luncheon. At 12:30 P.M., as the car started down the Elm Street hill leading beneath a railroad overpass in Dealey Plaza, several shots were fired, and Kennedy and Connally were hit. They were rushed to Parkland Memorial Hospital, where the president was pronounced dead at 1:00 P.M. from wounds in the neck and head. Connally, wounded in the back, wrist, and thigh, recovered. At 2:38 P.M. Johnson was sworn in as president by United States district judge Sarah T. Hughes , with Claudia "Lady Bird" Johnson and Kennedy's widow in attendance, at Love Field on the plane that returned Kennedy's body to Washington that evening. Between 1:45 and 2:00 P.M. of the same day, Lee Harvey Oswald was arrested in the Texas Theatre in the Oak Cliff section of Dallas and charged with the murder of policemen J. D. Tippit . On November 23 Oswald was charged with murdering Kennedy with a rifle fired from the sixth floor of the Texas School Book Depository . On November 24 Oswald was shot and killed by Jack Ruby , a Dallas lounge operator, in the basement of the city jail while being transferred to the county jail. Ruby was indicted for murder on November 26, 1963, and was convicted on March 14, 1964. The conviction was appealed, and in November, 1966, a new trial with a change of venue was ordered. Ruby died on January 3, 1967, before the second trial began. On November 29, 1963, President Johnson established the President's Commission on the Assassination of President John F. Kennedy, also known as the Warren Commission, which consisted of seven men representing the United States Supreme Court, Senate, House of Representatives, the public, and the Central Intelligence Agency. Chaired by Chief Justice Earl Warren, the commission met first on December 5, 1963, and submitted its multivolume report on September 24, 1964. From the moment of publication, the report was both criticized and defended vigorously. Hundreds of books and articles have been written on the subject. Skeptics are critical of the commission's inquiry or offer alternate theories about the circumstances and events connected with the assassination. Conversely, many defenders of the Warren report have debunked a number of conspiracy theories. Although the commission concluded that Oswald acted alone, they also noted that it was impossible to prove conclusively that no conspiracy existed. In February 1975, Congressman Henry B. Gonzales introduced House Resolution 204 to convene a House select committee to reexamine the assassinations of President Kennedy, Robert F. Kennedy, and Martin Luther King, Jr. The committee, which met several times between 1977 and 1979, concluded in its final report (July 1979) that JFK "was probably killed as the result of a conspiracy" but admitted that "the Committee was unable to identify the other gunman or the extent of the conspiracy." In 1989 the Sixth Floor Museum was opened in the former Texas School Book Depository building as a museum and memorial to President Kennedy. In 1992, as a result of increased public

Tsha Handbook → · 4.5 mi away

Oswald, Lee Harvey

1963

Lee Harvey Oswald, alleged assassin of President John F. Kennedy, was born in New Orleans, Louisiana, on October 18, 1939, the third son of Marguerite Claverie Oswald. His father, Robert Lee Oswald, had died of a heart attack two months earlier. Young Oswald was placed in a Lutheran orphanage at the age of three, but he was removed when his mother left for Dallas in January 1944 and remarried. His schooling began in Benbrook, Texas, but he reentered the first grade in Covington, Louisiana, in 1946; he continued his education in Fort Worth in January 1947, as a result of his mother's separation and divorce. After he and his mother moved to New York in August 1952, he became a chronic truant and was placed under psychiatric care. They moved again to New Orleans in January 1954; in 1955 Oswald left school and tried unsuccessfully to join the Marine Corps. He found a job and used his spare time to pursue his growing interest in communist literature. He returned to Fort Worth with his mother in July of the following year and in October 1956 joined the Marine Corps. He served fifteen months overseas, mostly in Japan; later he served in California. After an appeal based on the illness of his mother, he was released early from the service in September 1959. A month later Oswald left for the Soviet Union, entering through Finland. He tried to commit suicide when ordered out of Russia, but while attempting to renounce his United States citizenship he was permitted to remain and work in a Russian radio factory. On April 30, 1961, he married Marina Nikolaevna Prusakova. A daughter was born in February 1962, and in June, after prolonged efforts, Oswald was allowed to return with his family to the United States. He lived in Fort Worth until October, when he moved to Dallas. On April 10, 1963, he attempted to kill Maj. Gen. Edwin A. Walker at the latter's home; the bullet missed Walker by inches. In late April, upon his return to New Orleans, Oswald organized a so-called Fair Play for Cuba Committee. He went to Mexico in September in an unsuccessful effort to get a visa to Cuba and the Soviet Union, and he returned in October to Dallas. A second daughter was born at that time. Oswald was arrested on November 22, 1963, and later charged with the assassination of President John F. Kennedy and the murder of policeman J. D. Tippit . It was alleged that Oswald positioned himself in a sixth-story window of the Texas School Book Depository and there fired on the motorcade of President Kennedy and Governor John B. Connally . It was also claimed that Oswald killed J. D. Tippit shortly after the assassination while resisting arrest. Oswald was finally arrested in a movie theater that same day in the Oak Cliff section of Dallas. Two days later, on November 24, Oswald was shot and killed by Jack Ruby in the basement of the city jail while being transferred to the county jail. He was buried in Fort Worth. See also KENNEDY ASSASSINATION .

Tsha Handbook → · 4.5 mi away

Roe v. Wade

1970

A Texas case stands at the center of years of national debate about the issue of abortion. That case, Roe v. Wade , was decided by the United States Supreme Court on January 22, 1973. The ruling basically held that women have a right, under the Fourteenth Amendment of the United States Constitution, to decide whether to continue or to terminate a pregnancy. It overturned a Texas law making all abortions (except those performed to save the life of the woman) illegal, and by implication overturned antiabortion statutes in most other states. The roots of the case lie in Austin, Texas, during the late 1960s. A group of local volunteers were telling women about birth control and how to avoid pregnancy. Their action followed a 1965 Supreme Court case, Griswold v. Connecticut , which overturned state laws making criminal the use of contraception. However, some women who approached them were already pregnant and wanted to know where and how to get an abortion. The volunteers originally wanted to know whether they could legally provide that information, including information about illegal abortion providers in Texas and Mexico, or whether doing so would subject them to possible prosecution as accomplices to the crime of abortion. In March 1970 a suit was filed in Dallas in a three-judge federal district court on behalf of a pregnant woman known as Jane Roe (later identified as Norma McCorvey ) and all other women "who were or might become pregnant and want to consider all options." The suit was against Henry Wade , the district attorney at Dallas, an official responsible for enforcing criminal laws, including antiabortion statutes. The suit asked that the Texas law be declared unconstitutional and that an injunction be issued telling Wade to stop prosecuting doctors who performed abortions. The three-judge court declared that the "freedom to choose in the matter of abortions has been accorded the status of a `fundamental' right in every case the court had examined, and that the burden is on the defendant to demonstrate to the satisfaction of the court that the infringement [by the Texas abortion laws] is necessary to support a compelling state interest." Although this burden was not met and the court declared the Texas law unconstitutional, the court still refused to issue an injunction against Wade. The following day Wade announced that he would continue to prosecute physicians who provided abortion services. Both sides appealed, and eventually the Supreme Court agreed to hear the case. The Supreme Court's 1973 decision held that there was a constitutional right of privacy. Seven justices joined the majority opinion written by Justice Harry Blackmun; two justices dissented. The opinion written by Justice Blackmun said in part: The constitution does not explicitly mention any right of privacy. In a line of decisions, however...the Court has recognized that a right of personal privacy, or a guarantee of certain areas or zones of privacy, does exist under the Constitution....These decisions make it clear that only personal rights that can be deemed "fundamental" or "implicit in the concept of ordered liberty"...are included in this guarantee of personal privacy. They also make it clear that the right has some extension to activities relating to marriage...procreation... contraception...family relationships...and child rearing and education. This right of privacy, whether it be founded in the Fourteenth Amendment's concept of personal liberty and restrictions upon state action, as we feel it is, or, as the District Court determined, in the Ninth Amendment's reservation of rights to the people, is broad enough to encompass a woman's decision whether or not to terminate her pregnancy. The detriment that the state would impose upon the pregnant woman by denying this choice altogether is apparent. Justices William Rehnquist and Byron White, the two dissenting justices, asserted that there was no right of personal privacy such as that recogniz

Tsha Handbook → · 4.5 mi away

Oak Cliff, Texas

Music in Oak Cliff

Songs About Oak Cliff

Artists From Oak Cliff

Rivers & Roads in Song near Oak Cliff

History of Oak Cliff

Oak Cliff's Freedman's Town Endures RoadyGoat

Trinity River RoadyGoat

Dallas, TX RoadyGoat

Dealey Plaza - JFK Assassination

Texas School Book Depository Building

Parkland Hospital

Kennedy Assassination

Oswald, Lee Harvey

Roe v. Wade

Things to Do in Oak Cliff

Everything Near Oak Cliff