JUANITA J. CRAFT

Juanita Craft was an important figure in the civil rights movement in Dallas and her native state of Texas. She moved into the home at 2618 Warren Avenue in 1950, in an era and a neighborhood plagued with racial violence, including multiple racially-motivated bombings that same year. Not one to shy away from confrontation, it is assumed that her move during that year was intentional. She would go on to promote equal rights, voter registration and the desegregation of schools. She worked through the NAACP’s state organization to gain racial integration of the State Fair of Texas in 1961, is the first African American woman in Dallas County to vote, and the first to be elected to the City Council. She devoted her life to fighting for equal rights for everyone with a focus on children, using her home to engage them in civic issues while teaching them practical skills. After her death, her home was opened in 1994 as a city-owned museum. With a recent $500,000 African American Civil Rights Grant from the National Park Service, the property is poised to deliver on the hope and promise of Ms. Craft’s community engagement legacy once again. McCoy Collaborative is honored to have completed a Historic Structures Report for the property in 2018 and to begin rehabilitation work for the Juanita Craft Civil Rights House this year.