Juanita J. Craft Civil Rights House

Mrs. Craft and Her Home

The 1300 sq. ft. one-story frame house was the home of Juanita J. Craft, one of Dallas´ most significant civil rights figures and the second African American woman to serve on the Dallas City Council. Programming at the Juanita Craft Civil Rights House is coordinated by the South Dallas Cultural Center of the City of Dallas’ Office of Cultural Affairs. Juanita J. Craft lived in this house for 50 years, and both Lyndon B. Johnson and Martin Luther King, Jr., visited her there to discuss the future of the civil rights movement. Craft played a crucial role in integrating two universities, the 1954 Texas State Fair, and Dallas theaters, restaurants, and lunch counters. As a tribute to her anti-discrimination efforts, Dallas named a city park and recreation center after her.

In her frequent train trips around the state, she consistently sat in “whites only” sections, refusing to move. When she first moved to Dallas, Craft worked at the Aldophus Hotel as a maid and later, a dressmaker. She moved into the home at 2618 Warren Avenue after the death of her husband.  In 1935, Craft joined the NAACP, and in the years that followed, she started 182 rural NAACP chapters.Craft joined demonstrations against the segregated University of Texas Law School and North Texas State University, each resulting in successful lawsuits in 1950 and 1955. Afterwards, she opened a dropout preparation program in Dallas. Craft also served as a delegate to the White House Conference on Children and Youth, and as a member of the Governor’s Human Relations Committee. In 1975, at the age of 73, she was elected to the Dallas City Council, where she spent two terms working to improve the status of Hispanic and Native Americans.

Text adapted from the National Park Service

Click Here for info on the Juanita J. Craft House Artist Residency Initiative

Other resources: (links)

National Park Service- Biography

2019 Historic Structures Report

2019 Community Engagement & Governance Report

FACTS AND PHOTOS

Historical Location

Juanita Craft’s home on Warren Avenue in South Dallas is part of Dallas’s Wheatley Place Historic District.

The Fight for Equality

In 1944, Craft became the first black woman in Dallas County to vote in a public election.

In 1955, she organized a protest of the State Fair of Texas against its policy of admitting blacks only on “Negro Achievement Day.”

A Dallas Icon

1976. Juanita J. Craft in her tenure as a city council member in Dallas, Texas.

In addition to her protests against the admittance policies of the State Fair of Texas, she helped lead efforts to desegregate the University of Texas School of Law and North Texas State University (now University of North Texas).

An American Hero

Juanita Craft was recognized for her efforts throughout the years including the NAACP Golden Heritage Life Membership Award in 1978, the Eleanor Roosevelt Humanitarian Award in 1984, and she was recognized by the NAACP for her fifty years of service.