Tracing the genealogy of Black education Dallas through people, ideas and place. CEO and Co-founder of a youth movement,
@ylscmovement
. Pay black womens.
Sharing my first long historical writings published in service to a project on the history of Dallas's first Black schools in what folks now call Uptown. The project has captured my imagination for the last two years and it's finally in the universe.
College students from Texas were literally crowd-sourcing to raise money to attend THIS NABJ conference because organizational budgets for Black and POC students were eliminated due to racist, anti-DEI legislation brought forth by this former President and his cronies.
🟥 Former U.S. President Donald J. Trump will participate in a conversation with journalists at
#NABJ24
during its opening day in Chicago on Wednesday, July 31, at noon CST. For more details:
I'm in Brenham,TX visiting my aunt; a thing I've done a lot. I found a paper on Reconstruction in Texas that listed Washington County, which includes Brenham, as one of 16 counties in Texas known as the "Black Belt" This time I went to dig up some of that history. Findings:
So in closing, Brenham is more than Blue Bell ice cream. It's literally one of the most important sites for Black history in Texas and there's so many more sites.
August 28--the day we lost our Black Panther, culture icon. It's also the Anniversary of the March on Washington, the birthday of Emmett Till, the day Barack Obama accepted the Democratic nomination for President, and this year MLB is celebrating Jackie Robinson Day today.
Ron Wright, the local Congressman who recently passed away, spent his last days fighting against abortion rights, denouncing the validity of the election results, and being part of narratives that divided this country.
ESPN &
@MariaTaylor
jointly announced today that after much discussion, an agreement on a contract extension could not be reached
As a result, her last assignment for ESPN was last night's NBA Finals telecast
Comments from Jimmy Pitaro & Maria Taylor:
I'm not going to say this one is my fave but my research area is early Black schools in Texas. Est 1875, Pickard High School was THE first public Black high school in the state. Similar to B.F. Darrell in Dallas (from my research) it served as both elementary and high school.
Camptown was one of the state's first Black settlements for Freedman dating back to 1850. Yep prior to the Civil War. Federal troops came during Reconstruction and set up a camp, hence the name. The cemetery is the final resting place for many formerly enslaved people.
Next, Mt. Rose Church. Formed by Freedman and people who had runaway from enslavement. Brenham is 1 of a few places in Texas that received help from federal troops following the Civil War. As a result, Black folks were able to fully establish their right for religious gathering.
Y'all. This Ja'Tovia Gary show at DMA is ridiculous. This installation includes 8,000 pieces of cotton, hand applied with vivid imagery of ancestors and family and the artist cast over it. Dallas will never be the same. Ever.
Also, similar to B.F., despite its historical prowess, Pickard was also closed in 1969! In the name of desegregation. The building was also demolished but it's alumni keep its memory alive and operate out of a building formerly associated with the school.
This is a WILD storyline: TJ Holmes wife tweeted this “End the relationship and cry once. It’s better than being with them and crying daily.” Holmes posted the message via Instagram, adding, “Quote of the week” with a crying face emoji. 🤬
TJ Holmes left his real wife for his work wife?! I mean I kn……
*phone falls out of hand onto floor and self destructs before I mention real details about my life experiences*
But yeah. "Folks don't have to come"...people use their personal time off, own funds or work hard to advocate for that professional development funds because of what this means to be.
I have dreams of the
@dallasnews
and
@startelegram
doing a reckoning with the history of its racist news coverage and lack of news coverage. Me and
@JerryLEADS
even pitched an idea to
@dallasnews
for a similar project but it hasn't happened yet. One day.
Never seen a headline stating a Black person who committed a crime came from a 'patriotic family'. They are incapable of not centering whiteness or creating fake white innocence.
Breaking news: The 21-year-old arrested in connection with the leak of U.S. secrets is from a patriotic family. Online, he took on a persona at odds with his military career. He had access to classified documents through a Defense Department system.
In Dallas' May 4 bond election, city residents will consider $50 million for a new Dallas Police Training Facility at UNT Dallas, along with upgrades to streets & parks. Watch the full episode of Eye On Politics online here:
What I appreciate about Juneteenth is it's reminder that NONE of us are free until ALL of us are free. It took TWO and a HALF additional years for enslaved people in Texas to learn they were legally free.
I lived out my literary dreams tonight in conversation with Jesmyn Ward at the Dallas Museum of Art. So appreciative of her regard for storytelling and living of the Black South.
Getting a full spread in the paper is surreal. Sharing the news with my 92 year old Grandmother, even >>>>>. She will be getting her print copy ASAP. Thank you
@SharonFGrigsby
❣️
Shout out to the school districts in DFW that canceled class all together. These babies deserve a good old fashioned snow day. I remember that joy watching tv to see my school come across the screen
One of 50 women change makers in Texas selected as part of the LBJ Women's Campaign School. It's ya girl, Ambeezy. But seriously, what an honor. What a blessing. What a chance to learn and grow and pour into others.
Years ago I was on a flight from NOLA and reading Baracoon by Zora Neale Hurston. The woman next to me asked my name and we struck an amazing convo. The longest tenured Black woman staff person at Dallas Museum of Art, and a legend in African Art collection, Roslyn Adele Walker
We get to tell those stories too when folks pass away who were unkind while living and fought against basic decency. I want to make more space for that and challenge us all to consider that.
Named 1 of 78 Women Changing the Face of Dallas by
@d_magazine
. Tremendous honor during my first year as CEO of
@youngleadersstrongcity
@ Dallas, Texas
My latest: A lesson in global necropolitics.
As the U.S. and other wealthy nations are swimming in (and wasting) vaccines, people in Africa are being left to die.
Less than 2% of the continent has been vaccinated.
For those of y'all making recommendations to Keith Lee for Dallas, y'all know his focus is Black restaurants... so why y'all suggesting non-Black restaurants? The Dallas Morning News not understanding I get but the rest of yallsssss, let's read the room.
On this Juneteenth federal holiday, I must speak the name of Pearl Etta McVey. She is 101 years old. She emailed (yes)me after my story in DMN cc
@SharonFGrigsby
. She was born in 1921 and she has a book she published when she was 83. She is amazing y'all but let me continue.
A thread on encampments in Far North Dallas:
About 2:30 today I chatted with these
#homeless
guys from their sofa under
@TollTagNews
Tollway & Briargrove. Nobody was interested in services or going to a shelter. Then their drug daddy came to see what was happening.
Next up:
I mean did you see him in When They See Us??? Or Lovecraft in that Tulsa episode? I know you all will cite the wire. But my man had range. His roles carried true complexity and humanity and brilliance. It's so many roles that were made just for him that will never be.
Tour guide was not talking about enslavement and forced Black labor enough for me on a PLANTATION TOUR, so I added some questions and commentary to make sure she knew that I would be helping her out along the way.
in honor of Juneteenth I'm reading how enslavement was written into Texas law and practices for my
#onebookperweek
in honor of Juneteenth. And yes. There's enough to write entire book(s) about laws of slavery in Texas. Add this to the 1836 curriculum.
I think it's a miss that the
@CityOfDallas
doesn't host it's Dr. King event at the African American Museum or the South Dallas Cultural Center. These institutions need city support and this seems like an obvious.
@Puff_Iya
But if he feel comfortable enough to say this out loud one podcast I bet there was problems because him feeling like this manifest in a lot of ways.
The City of Dallas is really out here using Botham Jean like he's a mascot. Y'all don't value Black folks at all and it be your own Black mayor doing this mess.
F**k 12: Bucks Baller Sterling Brown Reaches $750,000 Settlement With Milwaukee Police After They Violated His Civil Rights With Taser And Arrest
(Image via Quinn Harris / Getty)
@dallasnews
Do better. Publishing this article without making mention of the new owner, Adelson, and her ongoing support of Trump including a 100M donation following his conviction is bad journalism. It just is.
@Sifill_LDF
how he writes an article this long, doesn't recognize race or that this country was broken for Black people and POC long before 1970 is unthinkable. we need your article
NEW: An 11-foot tall memorial in honor of the Allen mass shooting victims is now on display at the outlet mall. Today marks one year since the shooting happened. The memorial features 8 wind chimes to honor the 8 victims.
More coverage:
I think about her often. I cite her often. I wonder what words she would have for these times but her words have prepared me for and kept me during these times.
For my next writings I've spent a lot of time working to fully capture the intentionality of Black geography/cartography and placemaking. This of course means more reading and studying and interviews and being guided by ancestral voices.
Two years ago,
@msberbiage
, CEO of
@YLSCmovement
, published the first story in the Dallas Forgot series. This Black History Month, we invite neighbors back to Dallas' Black schools as an exploration and reclamation of their histories.
📸
@nitashiajohnson
So anyway. Enjoy these Black joyful images and stories from early Juneteenth in Dallas. It's rare to find stories about early celebrations here so I'm so elated to post for Ms. Pearl. She emails and YouTube's but doesn't know how to tweet. At 101, I think that is okay.
Dallas is 1 of the country's largest cities. The mayor running unopposed does not equal a good thing. It's a sign of a stagnant city & business leaders stifling the competition. Wonder will we see coverage around what happened to the competition. Hinojosa was thinking of running
BREAKING:
@Johnson4Dallas
will run unopposed in the May 2023 mayoral election. He is the first person ever to run unopposed for mayor since the city switched to electing its mayor to four-year terms in 1991 and is the first person period to run unopposed for mayor since 1967.
Finally we are getting an amazing bio on Margaret Walker who Alex Haley plagiarized in Roots. Walker sued him and while she lost he later paid another author who made a similar claim. Sis also had a read on Clarence Thomas and Richard Wright about internalized racism. 👑
You mean you want to hear my thoughts...on politics and race?? Gladly. So grateful to speak to NBC 5, Candace Sweat, about what Kamala's nomination means for Black women. Plot twist, I'm conflicted and I also kept it real! Watch here:
2021 has been full of reasons to be grateful. I am honored to be recognized by D CEO Magazine as one of the Dallas 500 visionary business leaders
@YLSCmovement
our work to educate, equip & empower the next generation of equity leaders continues to be necessary.
It's way too quiet in Dallas. Dallas Mayor had an affair with a city staffer. He built his brand on being a family man.
@dallasnews
we need deep investigative reporting, about how taxpayer money was impacted, how he was not fulfilling his duties.
@DMagazine
can't do it all.
I don't have data on this BUT what I really want the Keith Lee visit to uncover is the lack of Black owned restaurants in Dallas and what feels like a decline Black owned restaurants over the years. This decline is what leads to Firebird Pies and Terry Blacks being suggested.
Did
@OmniDallas
ever do a Black Lives Matter tribute??? I know they had a really wack response why they couldn't initially but they seem able to celebrate everything else. Last question will
@OmniDallas
have a Juneteenth tribute on their building tonight?
A Black family from Georgia was pulled over in rural Tennessee for driving with 'dark tint and traveling in the left lane while not actively passing'
Within hours, they had lost custody all five of their children, including a nursing baby
via
@TNLookout
Grateful for the piece and also reminded of words to push me from a community elder: "we have a history told to us by white researchers" and she insisted "I double down on my commitment to tell Black stories" or "someone else will".
One chapter of Texas' civil rights legacy is opening back up. A long-suppressed book about politics and race in Dallas is growing in popularity.
CBS News producer
@RodneyCBSNews
has the details on why the resurgence of "The Accommodation" is so important to so many.
#BHM
I would think the Mayor of my city would fact check. Using FoxNews as a source is negligent and spreads false news. Media literacy is important and I guess no one is immune to being victim of misinformation. But EVERY major city has increased its police budget.
If you work for Austin PD, are still interested in protecting and serving, and are considering retiring from the profession, don’t. Come work for the residents of
@CityOfDallas
by joining
@DallasPD
. We want and need you.
#BigDallasEnergy
💯
Today in Fort Worth:
Elevator door opens, and I see people without masks saying, "mind if we get on with you?"
Me without even thinking,"NOT without a mask."
Them: I don't even know where my mask is.
<door closes in their face>
NEW: The Texas Comptroller’s office says it will investigate whether ice cream giant Ben & Jerry’s should be blacklisted by the state for announcing it will no longer do business in the Palestinian territories.
The attack the city of Dallas has made on homeless people is deplorable. Example 1: Signs are placed in areas where the city closely surveils homelessness. They read: 'Say no to street charity be the solution' 🤮 NAH DALLAS, YALL BE THE SOLUTION
“I ride the system all the time...it’s not clean.There are elevators that don’t work, escalators that don’t work. There are many, many things that we can be doing with this money that does not involve just giving it away.”
@hosannadtx
DART board member
Cannot put into words what this piece being published in
@dallasnews
means. My grandmother lived in the Roseland Projects. This work is in so many ways about her. Thank you
@SharonFGrigsby
@thequotablelife
• so poorly written the dialogue is comical
• ridiculously farcical and far fetched
• almost positive not a single person in it is actually Irish
• also positive no one working on the film has ever been to Ireland
• it's the best film I've ever seen
Waking up to national stories about pollution so intense it decreases life expectancy by 10 years and folks in line by the thousands for food in my community of Dallas, TX , don't feel like community at all. Places that harm and kill its own people then blame them for violence.
Let me help you out and give you my thoughts on DEI
1. Diversity
Good businesses look where others don't, to find the employees that will put your business in the best possible position to succeed.
You may not agree, but I take it as a given that there are people of various