Tenth Street Historic District Freedmans Town

SMU archaeologist Katie Cross, mapping the district from census and city directory data, dates the neighborhood to 1888, when Anthony Boswell bought the lots. Boswell lies in Oak Cliff Cemetery, where a gate separates Black graves from those of white leaders such as Leslie Stemmons. The Home Owners' Loan Corporation redlined Tenth Street in 1937. By the 1950s it had nearly 2,000 residents and, at its peak, as many as 40 businesses. Greater El Bethel is the only one of eight churches still serving the neighborhood, and Simpson's Corner Store is the last commercial building.

What the plaque says

Tenth Street Historic District Freedmans Town The first African Americans to live in Oak Cliff were slaves, brought here by settlers such as William H. Hord in 1845 to work the land. The neighborhood that grew here became known as the Tenth Street District, an important African American enclave within the historically white community of Oak Cliff. It was not until after the Civil War that the Freedman's Town began to grow and thrive. Records differ as to when and how quickly African Americans settled here, but by 1900, Oak Cliff contained more than 500 African American residents, almost a sixth of the town's population. Segregation forced the development of a separate commercial district. The community thrived, and even gave rise to famous entertainers like the noted blues artist, T-Bone Walker, and 1960 Olympic gold medal decathlete Rafer Johnson. Though the community continued to maintain a strong African American heritage, the construction of IH-35 east in 1955 and integration in the 1960s resulted in the demolition of around 175 original structures and influenced residents to seek opportunities elsewhere. Residential buildings date to as early as 1910 and are relatively unchanged. Oak Cliff Cemetery, established in 1846 by settler William Beaty, is within the heart of the district near the 1928 N. W. Harllee School. Other significant buildings include the 1889 Sunshine Elizabeth Chapel CME (demolished 1999) and the 1886 Greater El Bethel Baptist Church. The degree to which these historic buildings remain standing and in good repair marks the Tenth Street Area as one of the more well-preserved African American communities of this time period remaining in the Dallas Metropolitan Area. Oak Cliff's Tenth Street Historic District was listed in the National Register of Historic Places in 1994 in recognition of its cultural significance and architectural value. (2015)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Dallas Heritage Village at Old City Park — 1.9 mi
  Dallas's first city park, laid out around Browder's Spring in 1876, now a museum of historic buildings moved here from across North Texas, among them Millermore, a cotton planter's mansion.
• The Sixth Floor Museum at Dealey Plaza — 2.0 mi
  A plow-company warehouse of 1903, identified by the Warren Commission as the building Oswald fired from, now a museum on its sixth and seventh floors above Dealey Plaza.
• Dallas Museum of Art — 2.5 mi
  A city art museum that began as the Dallas Art Association in 1903, grew up in Fair Park, and has stood in the Arts District since 1984 under a forty-foot barrel vault.
• African American Museum, Dallas — 3.1 mi
  Founded in 1974 at Bishop College, a free Fair Park museum holding the Sepia photograph archive, African art and A. Maceo Smith's papers, and the story of the Hall of Negro Life.

More markers nearby

• Oak Cliff Cemetery — steps away
• Colonel William G. Cooke — 0.7 mi
• Officer J.D. Tippit — 0.8 mi
• Samuel David Dealey, Jr. — 0.9 mi