Tenth Street Freedman's Town

The Tenth Street Freedman's Town is a historic African American community in the Oak Cliff section of Dallas, Texas.

[1] The name "Tenth Street" became associated with the community in 1887, when John Scarborough Armstrong and Thomas Lafayette Marsalis platted the town of Oak Cliff.

Only a portion of the original nucleus and subsequent expansion of the Tenth Street Freedman's Town prior to the Second World War is protected by the local historic overlay district.

[4] A July, 1844, report by Peters Colony agent Ralph Barksdale confirms the presence of a mere three slaves in the West Trinity zone at the time of his 1844 survey, presumably those owned by George Leonard.

Conversely, it seems unlikely that Hord, being the last of the four slave holders to arrive, would have brought the first African Americans into the vicinity of William S. Beatty's Robertson County survey.

Beatty stipulated that his burial ground “remain forever open to all.”[6] Slaves were buried in the southern end along what became Tenth Street.

Black Tenth Street grew west into Original Oak Cliff, bringing a vibrant mix of businesses and residences that reached a zenith during the Jazz Age.

[12] Alumni include 1960 Olympic gold medal decathlete Rafer Johnson[13] and guitarist Aaron Thibeaux “T-Bone” Walker, who electrified the blues.

[14] On September 8, 1935, jazz saxophonist James Earl Clay was born at his parents' home on Cliff Street, directly behind the Greater El Bethel Missionary Baptist Church.

A diagrammatic map showing how local and national historic designation boundaries differ from each other and from the historic extent of the freedman's town.
A: Total area of African American settlement comprising Greater Tenth Street and The Bottom at the zenith of pre-World War II expansion, fifty years before heritage designation. Approximately 300 acres. Historic Designations identified as Tenth Street Historic District: B: Dallas landmark district (designated 1993). Approximately 87 acres. The Dallas landmark district includes approximately 69 acres of the 300 acres defined as Area A above, comprising 79% of the landmark district and 23% of African American district during the period of historic significance. C: National Register of Historic Places Historic District (designated 1994). Note: Hatched areas lying outside of Area A consist of age-appropriate structures not occupied by African Americans during period of historic significance but included in one or both historic district designations. These areas were off limits to African American residents of Tenth Street and The Bottom during the Jim Crow Era.