Neighborhoods We Called Home
"Neighborhoods We Called Home," is a collaborative effort with the Dallas Jewish Historical Society, the Dallas Mexican American Historical League, and Remembering Black Dallas, Inc. The exhibit explores the historic neighborhoods of Dallas that served as strong, supportive communities for African American, Hispanic, and Jewish Dallasites from the early 1900s and beyond.
Materials from the three co-sponsoring organizations will be installed in three corresponding structures. Remembering Black Dallas’ materials will be exhibited in the Shotgun House, originally located in Dallas’ largest freedman’s town; the Dallas Mexican American Historical League’s materials will be featured in the railroad section house, as railroad work attracted many workers of Tejano or Mexican Heritage; and the Jewish Historical Society will display in a Victorian house that the Village has dedicated to the presentation of Jewish history.
Each collaborator has accumulated material by collecting oral histories and digitizing family memorabilia from Dallas citizens. Materials also include artistic renderings, images of costumed celebrations, fashions and artifacts. In each case they tell the stories of people who faced challenges regarding their places in Dallas society. They found strength through community, including institutions such as churches, stores and social organizations, and through community events and celebrations in neighborhood parks.
The three temporary installations will complement Dallas Heritage Village’s existing exhibit on the history of the Cedars Neighborhood, Dallas’ first residential enclave. In its long history, the Cedars has been home to Dallas’ elite as well as mills, warehouses and the homes of their employees. It housed Dallas’ first Jewish community, a thriving Hispanic barrio, and a community of African-American Dallasites. Throughout that history, the city park where Dallas Heritage Village now stands was the center of life in the Cedars.
Check out the amazing story map created by GISetc.