While exploring the Juanita Craft Civil Rights House and Museum, Lauren Williams felt enlightened to learn about the South Dallas civil rights leader.
“It sheds a light on almost all of the different phases that have happened through Black history — just in one person,” Williams says.
Williams was one of dozens of residents who participated in the Walk with Juanita and Jane, a mile-long tour hosted by the Dallas Public Library and Friends of Juanita Craft Civil Rights House and Museum on Saturday, May 9.
The tour was inspired by a movement called Jane’s Walk, honoring activist Jane Jacobs by bringing individuals together to walk and uncover stories that shape a neighborhood. Jacobs was a Canadian-American author and activist who advocated for community-centered urban planning.
Juanita Craft was a prominent civil rights leader who lived in South Dallas. Craft fought for desegregation, racial injustice, voting rights and more.
The walking tour started at the Martin Luther King Jr. Branch Library on the same-named boulevard, and ended at the Juanita Craft Civil Rights House and Museum in Queen City, where the civil rights activist lived. The tour made various stops along the way — at the intersection of Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X boulevards and the mural of Juanita Craft by artist Lakeem Wilson commissioned by the Walls Project, and on Pennsylvania Avenue to view new housing development in the neighborhood.
At the final stop, Patricia Perez greeted the tour group at the front steps of Juanita Craft’s home. Perez is a founding member of the Friends of Juanita Craft Civil Rights House and Museum Board of Directors, and personally knew Craft from a young age. To end the hot, sunny tour, she welcomed the group inside the air-conditioned museum to guide them on a journey of Craft’s life and her impact on not only Dallas but on a national level, too.
“Ms. Craft made us feel powerful during a time when people conspired to make us feel powerless,” Perez said.