From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Community in Texas, US
Little Egypt
was an
African-American
community in
Texas
which was founded after the
Civil War
and continued until the sale of the land in 1962. The roughly thirty-five
acre
neighborhood
was located within
Dallas
city limits, north of
Northwest Highway
.
[1]
[2]
Large homes and the Northlake Shopping Center currently occupy the site.
[1]
Professors Clive Siegle and Tim Sullivan of
Richland College
led a project to discover what happened to the families after they left Little Egypt.
[3]
Some of the original settlers were tracked to an neglected and vandalized cemetery in the area. The project also included an
archeological survey
of the only lot that had not been built over since the two houses that once there were bulldozed away.
[4]
Siegle has found a few
artifacts
on the site.
History
[
edit
]
The land was originally deeded to newly freed
forced laborers
after the end of the
Civil War
.
[5]
Jeff and Hanna Hill, the former slaves receiving the land, were released from chattel slavery when the
Emancipation Proclamation
was read out in Galveston on June 19, 1865.
[1]
The community's name alludes to the Biblical story of
the Exodus
of Jews from Egypt where they had been slaves. The Little Egypt Baptist Church was built in 1870. The community's single school taught all grade levels.
[5]
From early on, people in the community farmed as
sharecroppers
or worked on nearby
plantations
. The McCree Cemetery served the residents of Little Egypt.
[6]
As time went on and other neighborhoods got services like municipal or county services like running water, waste disposal systems, gas lines, paved roads and electricity, Little Egypt only got electricity. Rain could make the roads impassible, even though residents hauled discarded rocks in the attempt combat the mud. The church had no
central heating
or restrooms.
[7]
Eventually, a wealthy white neighborhood surrounded Little Egypt and on November 1961, Little Egypt was rezoned for
retail
use.
[1]
[8]
In 1962, a consortium that wanted to build a
shopping center
on the land paid residents cash for their ramshackle homes.
[8]
The group also paid for the residents' moving costs.
[8]
Sarah Robinson, a trustee of the Little Egypt Baptist Church, advised residents to sell their homes in order to get a better deal than if they held on until they were forced out.
[8]
[7]
The
real estate
deal took a year to finalize.
[9]
All 200 residents moved away in a single day in 1962.
[10]
[7]
Because race-based housing discrimination was still legal and barred them from moving to white neighborhoods, residents either moved to the nearby Cedar Crest neighborhood in Dallas,
[11]
to
Oak Cliff
or into
Rockwall County
.
[1]
Many residents apparently left eagerly because they were able to purchase modern homes with the money given them by the development group.
[5]
References
[
edit
]
- ^
a
b
c
d
e
Maxwell, Lisa C. (June 15, 2010).
"Little Egypt, Texas"
.
Texas Handbook Online
. Texas State Historical Association
. Retrieved
April 15,
2017
.
- ^
Cannon, Bill (1997).
A Treasury of Texas Trivia
. Lanham, Maryland: Republic of Texas Press. p. 178.
ISBN
9781461732778
.
- ^
Gutierrez, Kris.
"Students Research Forgotten All-Black Community"
.
NBC 5 Dallas-Fort Worth
. Retrieved
April 15,
2017
.
- ^
Ragland, James (November 4, 2016).
"Empty lot in northeast Dallas may offer clues about old black settlement known as Little Egypt"
.
Dallas News
. Retrieved
April 15,
2017
.
- ^
a
b
c
Young, Michael E. (February 24, 2002).
"Life was hard in freedman's town called Little Egypt"
.
Houston Chronicle
. Retrieved
April 15,
2017
.
- ^
Wilonsky, Robert (July 7, 2015).
"Two Dallas cemeteries dating back to the 1800s begin long road to historic designation"
.
Dallas News
. Retrieved
April 15,
2017
.
- ^
a
b
c
"Little Egypt Families Leave Shacks for Modern Homes"
.
Albuquerque Journal
. May 16, 1962
. Retrieved
April 15,
2017
– via Newspapers.com.
- ^
a
b
c
d
Holdbrook, Raymond (May 15, 1962).
"Century-Old Dallas Negro Colony Abandoned, Residents to Scatter"
.
Corsicana Daily Sun
. Retrieved
April 15,
2017
– via Newspapers.com.
- ^
"Little Egypt: A New Life for Negroes"
.
The Oneonta Star
. May 16, 2017
. Retrieved
April 15,
2017
– via Newspapers.com.
- ^
Babb, Christina Hughes (August 2, 2011).
"Lake Highlands history lesson: Little Egypt"
.
Lake Highlands
. Retrieved
April 15,
2017
.
- ^
"Little Egypt Residents in Hopeful Move"
.
Denton Record-Chronicle
. May 16, 1962
. Retrieved
April 15,
2017
– via Newspapers.com.
External links
[
edit
]