The plaque was removed and cut in half, according to Edward Gray, president of the Dallas County Justice Initiative.
By Uwa Ede-Osifo
https://www.dallasnews.com/
A historic marker in downtown Dallas acknowledging the site of a 1910 lynching was damaged recently.
Edward Gray, president of the Dallas County Justice Initiative, which oversaw the marker’s creation, said the signage on the marker was removed and cut in half.
“It’s disappointing because whoever took the pains of shearing off the historical marker did a great job of it,” Gray told KERA. “They knew exactly what they were doing because it’s cut off exactly at the base.”
Dallas police are investigating the incident.
Around 5:30 p.m. on May 23, officers took a vandalism report in the 1400 block of Main Street, officials said in an email to The Dallas Morning News.
“The preliminary investigation determined that City property had been damaged by unknown suspects,” the email read, adding that the incident “is not currently being investigated as a hate crime.”
In November 2021, the marker was unveiled at the intersection of Main and Akard streets, where over a century prior, 59-year-old handyman Allen Brooks was lynched.
Brooks had been accused of attempting to sexually assault a white child in a home where he had been employed to fix a furnace.
While he was awaiting legal proceedings at the Old Red Courthouse, a mob stormed the building. He was thrown from the second floor and dragged through the streets to the since-dismantled Elks Arch. He was then hanged from a telephone pole.
The graphic scene, which took place with a crowd of spectators, was photographed and used for a postcard.
“The marker clearly states what existed at that place — that it was a situation where hate reared its ugly head,” Gray said. “If somebody removes that, that is a direct contradiction to what was placed there.”
Dallas Park and Recreation has the damaged marker, according to Andrea Hawkins, a representative for the department.
Downtown Dallas Inc. employees found the plaque behind construction barricades on Akard Street, roughly 100 feet away from where it was affixed on a pedestal, on May 16, according to NBC-DFW (NBC5).
The marker is irreparable, Gray said, and will need to be replaced.
He hoped a new plaque could be installed by Juneteenth, but manufacturing delays have prolonged the timeline, he told KERA.
Meanwhile, building owners near the Main and Akard intersection are reviewing their cameras to see if footage may offer answers about the incident, according to NBC5. It’s unclear when the marker was removed or how.
In Gray’s view, justice will prevail.
“In the United States we are victims of whitewashing as well as brainwashing and this is what this story is about,” he told KERA. “This story is about making sure that it is not told as Black history, it is not told as Texas history, but it is told as American history.”
Uwa is a breaking news reporter on the features team. She covers arts and culture. Uwa previously reported on general assignment for NBC News Digital and wrote about politics for Slate.
This story, originally published in The Dallas Morning News, is reprinted as part of a collaborative partnership between The Dallas Morning News and Texas Metro News. The partnership seeks to boost coverage of Dallas’ communities of color, particularly in southern Dallas.
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