The 1300 sq. ft. one-story frame house was the home of Juanita J. Craft, one of Dallas´ most significant civil rights figures and the second African American woman to serve on the Dallas City Council. Programming at the Juanita Craft Civil Rights House is coordinated by the South Dallas Cultural Center of the City of Dallas’ Office of Cultural Affairs.
In 1935, Craft joined the NAACP, and in the years that followed, she started 182 rural NAACP chapters.Craft joined demonstrations against the segregated University of Texas Law School and North Texas State University, each resulting in successful lawsuits in 1950 and 1955. Afterwards, she opened a dropout preparation program in Dallas. Craft also served as a delegate to the White House Conference on Children and Youth, and as a member of the Governor’s Human Relations Committee. In 1975, at the age of 73, she was elected to the Dallas City Council, where she spent two terms working to improve the status of Hispanic and Native Americans.
Click here to learn more about the Juanita J. Craft Civil Rights House and Museum
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The Beauty of South Dallas was a pilot project created by multimedia artist Nitashia Johnson during the inaugural Juanita J. Craft Artist Residency. The project documents the neighborhood of South Dallas and several of its residence, business owners, and community leaders. South Dallas is a community rich with culture and history, but it is quickly changing. The goal of this project was to preserve a period in time that tells us where the neighborhood is before it changes. Over a three month period, September to December 2020, Nitashia has endeavored to connect with the people of the community and use her talents as a multimedia artist/designer to capture the landscape and present it in this website The Beauty of South Dallas.
Art&Seek shares a recent article about multimedia artist, Nitashia Johnson, and how she’s honoring the South Dallas Community through her camera lens.
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