Historians and journalists have documented — and today’s staffers recognize — the State Fair of Texas’ racist history.
In the early 1900s the fair hosted one “Colored People Day” per year. It was discontinued in 1910.
On a Wednesday in fall 1923, Ku Klux Klan Day drew some 160,000 Klansmen to the fairgrounds for the initiation of the “largest class in the history of Klandom,” according to the flier, which included an application for membership on the back.
Negro Achievement Day launched in 1936. Each year on Oct. 14, Black fairgoers were admitted inside the gates.
Read more about the history of this annual event, including a protest by Lincoln High School students organized by the late South Dallas resident and civil rights activist Juanita Craft.
This WBAP-TV news clip above from Oct. 16, 1951, notes that “Negro Achievement Day … has grown to be the largest gathering of Negroes in the southwest … the crowd reported above last year’s 183,000.” Source: University of North Texas Libraries Special Collections, The Portal to Texas History.
But it was a survey conducted in 1966 that launched a campaign that, when compounded by other economic factors, would contribute to the further fiscal devastation of an already-disinvested section of our city.
That is when State Fair operators commissioned an economic research study that determined the park’s poor, mostly Black neighbors generated “intense emotional discomfort” among middle-class white respondents.
While the report describes this “discomfort” as resulting from “a combination of factors,” the cause can be summarized as poverty and race. The sight of “the other side of the city” dampened white fairgoers’ enjoyment.
The researchers in 1966 recommended what they considered a straightforward fix. “Eliminate the problem from sight. If the poor Negroes in their shacks cannot be seen, all the guilt feelings revealed above will disappear, or at least be removed from primary consideration.”
The report’s authors continued: “This question was posed: ‘If all the land around Fair Park were bought up and turned into a paved, lighted, fenced parking lot, would that solve the problem?’ The citizens of Dallas answered with a resounding ‘Yes.’ ”
To that end, in the late 1960s and early ’70s, the City grabbed more than 200 homes around Fair Park, along South Fitzhugh and Second avenues, paving the way for Fair and Cotton Bowl parking.
The homeowners did not go quietly. The first Black man to run for Dallas mayor, the late Al Lipscomb, who served seven terms on the City Council, said in an oral history that he campaigned primarily to bring the Fair Park issues to the forefront.
“They were going to buy — take — 52 acres of land in the Fair Park for a parking lot for the Dallas Cowboys. That’s when the hell broke loose. That’s when we really organized. Come to find out, the Cowboys went to Irving. [Chuckles]”
He added, “I ran [for mayor] just to get the issues out about the Fair Park thing.”
While Lipscomb and the homeowners were able to up the prices the city would pay, they could not stop the land grab.
State Fair board chair Gina Norris says the City’s actions on behalf of the Fair, along with other factors, had a regrettable and significant impact on the neighborhood.
The late 1960s and early ’70s marked an extremely difficult time for South Dallas and the nation, she says. As the Fair Park community suffered “the City’s use of eminent domain to create a parking lot by displacing families,” Norris says, it also faced several additional hindrances to growth — the closure of the Ford Motor Plant (which cost Dallasites 1,900 jobs), the departure of the Dallas Cowboys and SMU football teams from Cotton Bowl Stadium, an energy crisis, and the relocation of Fair Park-neighborhood museums, including the Museum of Fine Arts (now Dallas Museum of Art) and the Dallas Museum of Natural History & the Science Place (now Perot Museum of Nature & Science).
Such events added “insult to injury,” Norris says. “That parking lot is a reminder of our past and a symbol of our promise.”
Wanahistoria na waandishi wa habari wamethibitisha <unk> na wafanyakazi wa leo <unk> wanatambua <unk> State Fair of Texas <unk> historia ya ubaguzi wa rangi. Katika miaka ya mapema ya 1900, maonyesho hayo yaliandaa "Siku ya Watu wa Rangi" moja kwa mwaka. Ilikoma kutolewa mwaka wa 1910. Siku ya Jumatano ya mwaka wa 1923, Siku ya Ku Klux Klan ilileta watu 160,000 kwenye uwanja wa maonyesho kwa ajili ya kuanzishwa kwa "darasa kubwa zaidi katika historia ya KKK," kulingana na karatasi hiyo, ambayo ilijumuisha ombi la uanachama nyuma. Siku ya mafanikio ya Negro ilianzishwa mnamo 1936. Kila mwaka Oktoba 14, wageni weusi walioruhusiwa kuingia ndani ya malango ya ukumbi huo. Mkutano huo wa kwanza wa mwaka huu uliandaliwa na wanafunzi wa shule ya sekondari ya Lincoln na uliandaliwa na mwanaharakati wa haki za kiraia Juanita Craft. "Wiki ya ""Negro Achievement Day"" ya mwaka 1951 ilifahamika kama ""The Black Achievement Day"" na ilichukuliwa kama ""The Black Achievement Day"" kwa sababu ya idadi ya watu waliohudhuria katika siku hiyo, ambayo iliongezeka hadi kufikia watu 183,000 mwaka jana." Lakini ilikuwa ni uchunguzi uliofanywa mwaka 1966 ambao ulianzisha kampeni ambayo, ikiongezwa na mambo mengine ya kiuchumi, ingesababisha uharibifu zaidi wa kifedha wa sehemu ya jiji letu ambayo tayari haikuwa na uwekezaji. Hiyo ni wakati State Fair waendeshaji kuagiza utafiti wa uchumi utafiti kwamba kuamua Hifadhi ya maskini, hasa Black majirani zinazozalishwa "mzito hisia usumbufu" miongoni mwa watu wazungu wa darasa la kati waliohojiwa. Ingawa ripoti hiyo inaelezea "ugumu" huo kuwa unaosababishwa na "mchanganyiko wa mambo", kisababishi cha tatizo hilo kinaweza kuelezwa kwa ufupi kuwa umaskini na ubaguzi wa rangi. Maono ya "upande ule mwingine wa jiji" yalipunguza furaha ya wageni weupe waliohudhuria maonyesho. Katika mwaka wa 1966, watafiti walifanya utafiti wa kugundua jinsi ya kuondoa tatizo hilo. Uondole tatizo hilo usilione. "Wananchi wa Dallas walijibu kwa sauti kubwa, ""Ndiyo.""Kwa kusudi hilo, mwishoni mwa miaka ya 1960 na mwanzoni mwa miaka ya 1970, Jiji la Dallas lilinunua nyumba zaidi ya 200 karibu na Fair Park, kando ya barabara za South Fitzhugh na Second Avenue, na kufungua njia kwa ajili ya Fair na Cotton Bowl parking." Wamiliki wa nyumba hawakwenda kimya-kimya. Mmoja wa watu weusi wa kwanza kuwania urais wa Dallas, Al Lipscomb, ambaye alitumikia katika Baraza la Jiji kwa muhula wa saba, alisema katika historia ya mdomo kwamba kampeni yake ilikuwa hasa kuleta masuala ya Fair Park mbele. "Walikuwa wakipanga kununua ""kuchukua"" ekari 52 za ardhi katika Fair Park kwa ajili ya maegesho ya Dallas Cowboys." Hapo ndipo kuzimu ilipoanza. Hapo ndipo tulipopanga kwa usahihi. Kuja kujua, Cowboys alikwenda Irving. "Alichukua hatua ya kuamua kuwa ""mji wa Fair Park"" ni mahali pa kufurahisha kwa sababu ya Lipscomb na wamiliki wa nyumba waliweza kuongeza bei ya ardhi, lakini hawakuweza kuzuia kukamata ardhi." Mwenyekiti wa bodi ya State Fair Gina Norris anasema vitendo vya Jiji kwa niaba ya Fair, pamoja na sababu nyingine, zilikuwa na athari ya kusikitisha na muhimu kwenye kitongoji. "Mwaka wa 1960 na mwanzoni mwa miaka ya 1970 ulionyesha wakati mgumu sana kwa Dallas Kusini na taifa, ""anasema." "Kama Fair Park jamii alipatwa ""mji matumizi ya uwanja maarufu kuunda maegesho kwa kuhamisha familia,"" Norris anasema, pia inakabiliwa na vikwazo kadhaa za ziada kwa ukuaji: kufungwa kwa Ford Motor Plant (ambayo gharama Dallasites 1,900 kazi), kuondoka kwa Dallas Cowboys na SMU timu za mpira wa miguu kutoka Cotton Bowl Stadium, mgogoro wa nishati, na kuhamishwa kwa Fair Park-jirani makumbusho, ikiwa ni pamoja na Makumbusho ya Sanaa (sasa Dallas Makumbusho ya Sanaa) na Dallas Makumbusho ya Sayansi Asili & Maeneo." Matukio kama hayo yaliongeza "uhalifu kwenye jeraha", Norris asema. <unk>Eneo hilo la maegesho ni kikumbusho cha zamani zetu na ishara ya ahadi yetu.<unk>