Dallas Neighborhood Stories Grant Collection

The items in this collection were part of a project in partnership with buildingcommunityWORKSHOP (bcWorkshop) with funding from the National Endowment for the Humanities through the Common Heritage grant program, the purpose of which was to collect and preserve the history of African American and Latinx communities in Dallas for future generations. These communities have tended to be underrepresented in the historical preservation of Dallas history. The grant focused on community members of the South Dallas, West Dallas, and Red Bird areas.

Individual events, promoted as “history harvests,” were held at three Dallas Public Library branches. The events were operated by a combination of staff from the Dallas History & Archives as well as Genealogy & History Divisions of the Dallas Public Library in partnership with staff from bcWorkshop. Though donors could arrange subsequent times to have additional items digitized, the three primary “history harvest” events were held on:

• West Dallas Neighborhood Stories - April 27, 2019 at the Dallas West Branch Library.
• Red Bird Neighborhood Stories - September 8, 2019 at the Polk-Wisdom Branch Library.
• South Dallas Neighborhood Stories - November 9, 2019 at the Martin Luther King Branch Library.

Participants at these events were encouraged to bring their photos and documents of their lives and their neighborhood, etc., to be digitized and included in the Dallas Public Library’s archive collection. Unless the donor wished to donate their original items, the Dallas Public Library would retain digital copies of the items and return the originals and files of the digitized versions back to the participants to preserve for future generations. Participants would receive a complementary flash drive containing both .jpg and .tiff files of photographs digitized and .pdf files of documents digitized at these events.

In addition, participants could volunteer to be interviewed for oral history video recordings about neighborhood history, conducted by bcWorkshop, which would be uploaded online via the Vimeo website.

Participants were asked to bring items such as the following (limit 5 items per customer on event days with the option to arrange subsequent appointments to have additional items digitized): Photographic prints, property surveys or maps, menus from local restaurants, yearbooks, church programs, etc.

Participants had the option to allow their digitized items to be added to the Dallas Public Library’s online library catalog, as well as have their digitized and/or original items to be used in exhibitions about their respective neighborhoods.

Those who wished to donate digitized items and/or original items completed a deed of gift form with the Dallas Public Library.

The donors who brought items for digitization by the Dallas Public Library are: Henrietta Adams; Julia Soto Cabrera; Elsa Cadena; Kathy Richey Farrington; Maria Lozada Garcia; Denise Gomez; Paula Hutchison; Henry R. Martinez, Jr.; Juan Moa, Sr. and Nello Moa on behalf of the Lozada family and Moa family; Lauren Lynn Oznick; Charles Wilson Pankey; Estefania Perez; Lewis Rhone; Steve Salazar; Luis Sepulveda; Clifford Sherman; Kenneth Smith; Ronald Stinson; Debbie Orozco Solis; Dean Washington; and Robert Webb.

The oral history video recordings component of this grant project was conducted by bcWorkshop, and it is to be noted that while many individuals who were interviewed also brought items to be digitized by the Dallas Public Library, not all interviewees participated in the digitization portion of the history harvests. In addition, participant names may very slightly between Dallas Public Library and bcWorkshop project areas depending on how the participant provided their name to each organization.

Those who participated in video interviews completed a release form with bcWorkshop.

The following are interviewees recorded in oral history videos: Henrietta Adams; Leonor C. Betancourt; Rayella Delley Boyd; Andre Butler; Eugenia Butler; Julia Soto Cabrera; Elsa Maria Orozco Cadena; Marilyn Clark; Oscar M. Flores; Maria Lozada Garcia; Denise Gomez; Alice Gutierrez; Charles Hillman; Rosemary Hinojosa; Paula L. Hutchison; Bessie Landin; Pauline M. Laws; Rudy Longoria; Troy Marceleño; Henry Martinez, Jr.; Lupe C. Montero; Nello Moa; Mary L. Paras; Robert Ramirez; Lewis Rhone Sr.; Steve Salazar; Luis Daniel Sepulveda; Clifford Sherman; Debbie O. Solis; David Tovar; Albert Valtierra; Dean Washington; Clifford Williams; and Robert E. Webb.

For more information see the collection finding guide on the Texas Archival Resources Online site:  https://txarchives.org/dalpub/finding_aids/01904.xml