The sound of beating dreams and applause echoed in downtown Dallas Saturday at the corner of Main and Akard Streets as advocates and civic leaders celebrated the unveiling of a memorial marker dedicated to Allen Brooks.
Brooks, a Black man, was lynched by a white mob on that very street corner on March 3, 1910 as thousands of people looked on.
Saturday’s ceremony was a moment of mourning and appreciation for Black lives lost to racist violence. Drummers and dancers from the Pan-African Connection opened the ceremony. Civic leaders including Dallas County Judge Clay Jenkins and County Commissioners John Wiley Price and J.J. Koch were in attendance.
Ed Gray is president of the Dallas County Justice Initiative which organized the ceremony. He said dedicating this marker has been 111 years in the making.
“This is an effort [of] historical activism in which we need to make sure that we reach back in history so we don’t repeat it,” Gray said.