Victims of racist violence in Dallas are honored in Martyrs Park

Two black sheets hung in the hot sun at Martyrs Park in downtown Dallas on Saturday. City leaders, volunteers and other participants sat as two long-awaited memorials to victims of racist violence were unveiled.

The two shiny gray-and-black Texas Historical Commission markers, each towering over the heads of visitors who came to examine them closely, tell the stories of four black men lynched in the mid-19th century. The park serves as a “memorial to the men and the inhumane legacy of slavery in Dallas,” a sign reads.

“We do have a bad history in the city,” Mayor Tennell Atkins told dozens of people on Saturday. “But what are we going to do about it? How are we going to write the history of Dallas?”

The markings are just the latest step in an effort to raise awareness of racial violence and injustice in the city.

One headstone is dedicated to Jane Elkins, the first recorded slave purchased in Dallas County and the first woman to be legally hanged in the state. The other headstone is dedicated to three men – Patrick Jennings, Cato Miller and the Reverend Samuel Smith – who were lynched at this site.

Their names are engraved on a sundial-inspired steel sculpture called “Shadow Lines,” which the city dedicated in March to the four and all other local victims of lynchings and racial violence between 1853 and 1920.

Local historian and activist Ed Gray told the Dallas Morning News that it is important to remember and share the stories of those who “meant nothing to American society” in the past. Gray is president of the Dallas County Justice Initiative and sits on the board of Remembering Black Dallas, two nonprofits that he said spearheaded the initiative.

“We’re giving them a life,” Gray said. “We’re giving them a voice when someone else has made sure their voices aren’t heard.”

A piece of Dallas history

Established in 1991, the park borders the Sixth Floor Museum at Dealey Plaza and the grassy knoll and is less than an acre in size. Cars from the Triple Underpass and the Interstate 35E on-ramp sped by as speakers, including Mayor Eric Johnson, delivered their remarks Saturday. Johnson said he thought the markers both honored the past and showed “how far our city has come.”

“We as a city cannot ignore the difficult parts of our history,” Johnson said. “We should recognize those difficult parts and face them head on.”

Gray said the markers would have lost their impact if they had been placed elsewhere. In addition to the three men killed at the site, slaves from Dallas County were often whipped there, he said.

The lynchings shaped the area in the 1860s, he said, much like the assassination of President John F. Kennedy a century later.

“We want people to realize that this is holy ground,” he said. “It’s as holy as the ‘X’ that people painted on the road that marks the spot where President Kennedy lost his life.”

Giving the honorees a voice

Elkins was hanged in 1853 after being found guilty of killing her white owner, Andrew Wisdom. The memorial stone in Elkins’ honor records that she was tried before an all-white jury. She was not allowed to testify and was unrepresented during the trial.

The sign states that years later, in 1880, a Galveston Daily News article found that she was the first person to report Wisdom’s death. Although she had accused another person of committing the crime, Elkins became the sole and primary suspect.

“Her body was not hers,” Pastor Sheron Patterson said Saturday. “Her actions were not hers.”

Jennings, Miller and Smith were hanged on a newly constructed gallows in 1860 after being falsely accused in connection with a fire downtown. The tombstone states that a committee of 100 white men ordered the whipping of all slaves in Dallas.

Gray said Smith wielded political power and influence as a minister in his community. Miller was well respected by other black men and women at Overton Plantation in Dallas County.

“He was a slave, but he ran the plantation,” Gray said of Miller. “When a black man runs the plantation, it sends the message to other African-Americans and women that they, too, can run the plantation. They, too, can be important. They, too, can be respected.”

Other memorials addressing racial violence have also been dedicated in the city in recent years. The Dallas County Justice Initiative worked for years to meet the requirements of the Equal Justice Initiative – which operates the National Memorial for Peace and Justice in Montgomery, Alabama – and secure two memorials in Dallas for Allen Brooks and William Allen Taylor.

The memorial for Brooks, who was kidnapped, killed and hanged in front of a large crowd downtown in 1910, was dedicated in November 2021 at Pegasus Plaza. The memorial for Taylor, who was lynched near the Trinity River in 1884, was dedicated last November in Trinity Overlook Park. Both names are on the sculpture in Martyrs Park. “This is one of those parts of history that, for lack of a better word, cannot be glossed over and forgotten,” Gray said.

“Hope” for the city

The smell of fresh mulch wafted over at Saturday’s unveiling as visitors noticed the landscape improvements at the park. The land was once full of vines, shrubs and weeds, said Trent Williams, former senior program manager for Dallas Park and Recreation.

Over the past year, the parks department has led efforts to clear the site to make room for the monument and historical markers, he said, and new trees and shrubs have been planted.

City Council members expressed interest in a memorial to victims of racial violence in 2018 while the debate over removing Confederate statues was still ongoing. When work began to install the markers, there was controversy, Beverly Davis, vice president of Remembering Black Dallas, said at the event.

“Some people said, ‘Why would you bring out something negative that puts Dallas in a bad light?'” she said.

Davis said George Keaton Jr., the founder of Remembering Black Dallas, would always say, “This is not black history. This is our collective history. This is American history.”

Keaton worked to make the idea of ​​preserving history a reality until his death in 2022. At the unveiling, several speakers paid tribute to Keaton and his impact. Community organizations and city officials have joined Gray in continuing his work.

“It was a monumental task to complete,” Gray said of Martyrs Park and the two new historical markers.

Gray praised the work of former City Manager TC Broadnax and Acting City Manager Kimberly Tolbert, who he said helped remove “obstacles” to allow for the construction of the monument and historical markers.

Tolbert, who spoke at the unveiling, urged those in attendance to “hold on to hope” and continue working to “break down the barriers that have divided us” and bring people back to the city.

“My hope for this city and for those of you who are here this morning is that as we revisit this site, we are reminded that these markers are an opportunity for us to really cultivate an appreciation of the soul,” Tolbert said. “For truth. For honor. For respect and dignity for these people.”