South Dallas Reflections | Linda Jones

Linda Jones, journalist and 2022 participant of the Juanita J. Craft Artist Residency Program, held oral history interviews with South Dallas residents and others who are familiar with the neighborhood. She took excerpts of those recorded conversations and compiled an audio-visual mosaic of their heartfelt stories and reflections about the community’s past and shared feelings about the area’s present and future.

List of participants in the presentation:

• Norma Adams Wade, journalist
• Donald Payton, historian
• King Shakur, artist/activist
• Patricia Baker, former resident (appears in photograph with son, King Shakur)
• Odinga Kambui, activist/archivist
• Diane Ragsdale, former member Dallas City Council
• Patricia Perez, resident/‘Craft kid’
• John Spriggins, South Dallas Cultural Center director
• Imani Chet Lytle, South Dallas Cultural Center staff
• Henry Miner, former resident
• Bevelyn Alexander, former resident
• Ajana Donnell, resident
• Glenn “Trini” Pierre, artist/resident
• Gayla Johnson, artist/resident
• Bridget Daniel, business owner
• Tamika London-Muhammad, former resident
• Debra Page, former resident
• James Mitchell, business owner
• James Mitchell II, business owner
• Included in the mosaic are reflections from Dr. George Keaton Jr., historian, founder of Remembering Black Dallas. It was the last interview that Dr. Keaton had before he passed on Dec. 6, 2022.

Participants and others can find the full interviews online at: archive.storycorps.org/communities/south-dallas-reflections/

Linda Jones

Linda Jones is an award-winning old school journalist who navigates new media, and she is a global citizen who celebrates diversity through advocacy. As a freelance writing consultant, and owner of Mane Lock Communications, LLC. She is known professionally as a “writing doula,” and specializes in writing that helps clients tell better stories, preserve legacy and promote emotional well-being and self-care. Linda’s has been a staff writer or freelance contributor for many publications, including the Detroit News, Daily Beast, BlackAmericanNews.com, Dallas Morning News, USA Today Weekend, People, Ft. Lauderdale Sun Sentinel, AOL News, and Agence France Press.

 

Writing about ordinary people making differences in underserved communities has been her most gratifying work, as well as writing culturally oriented stories with an African-centered and global reach. She has written about Jamaican Rastafarians, Trinidadian Calypsonians, Afro Germans in East Berlin, Black Hebrews in Israel, Afro Cubans in Havana and Haitian residents, refugees, and would-be revolutionaries. She covered the historic South Africa nonracial elections in 1994. As a young summer volunteer for Operation Crossroads Africa, Linda worked on agricultural and construction projects in Ghana, clearing farmland using machetes to making bricks for use in building a foundation for a village school.

 

As founder of A Nappy Hair Affair, Linda has encouraged self-appreciation and promotes the choice to wear natural and African-inspired hairstyles without discriminatory backlash. In her spare times Linda enjoys engaging in a more rhythmic form of communication – playing African drums.

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