Dallas Free Press named finalist in two 2022 LION Local Journalism Award categories

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We believe our work is important. Industry experts are taking notice, too.

Last week, Dallas Free Press was announced as a finalist in two categories for the 2022 LION Local Journalism Awards by the Local Independent Online News (LION) Publishers, which represents 400+ news organizations across the U.S. and Canada.

These nominations recognize our “Dallas Forgot” project, in partnership with Amber Sims of the Imagining Freedom Institute, for the Collaboration of the Year category. 

The second nomination is for our pop-up newsroom, in the Product of the Year category. You’ve likely seen it in action at South Dallas and West Dallas community events and possibly even redeemed one of our $5 tokens!

We are honored to be recognized for our nontraditional and innovative approaches that aren’t often acknowledged as “real journalism.” We’re committed to listening to our neighbors to understand what they need and want from us, and responding with equitable, community-centered journalism — no matter what that looks like.

Dallas Forgot

The story of Black schools in Dallas has never fully been told, especially from the viewpoint of Black families, faculty and community members. Over the decades, the powers-that-be have closed “bad schools,” scattered Black schoolchildren and gutted their communities, often in the name of financial efficiency and academic achievement. Much needs to be done to truly acknowledge the school district’s erasure of and intentional disregard for its Black schools and community, and to move closer toward rectifying these wrongs. 

Dallas’ original Black schools are, of course, situated in its original Freedman’s communities, most of them decimated over the years and their schools shuttered with their stories left untold. Our “Dallas Forgot” project intends to resurrect the schools that anchored these communities, connecting present-day Dallas to its past in ways that allow our city’s residents to better understand and grapple with our history. 

Dallas’ Black residents are still living with the repercussions of historical persecution. We are telling these stories with them—not about them—and also spreading the story widely among their allies and those who are learning how to be allies. “I had no idea this happened here” is an all-too-common phrase in Dallas, and this project is making significant strides toward ensuring that people know the truth.

DFP’s Pop-Up Newsroom

It’s not enough to simply provide news and information for our audiences; we also have to find ways to get that information directly to readers. And the best way for us to reach our South Dallas and West Dallas neighbors is face-to-face and word-of-mouth. 

In our early days, West Dallas leaders told us, “If you try to do this with email, you’ll fail.” They said we needed to get information directly to people’s phones. Thus, our two-way text message service has been our primary communication method all along, but we still had the problem of how to subscribe neighbors to the service.

In order to do journalism for and with our communities, and to amplify our neighbors’ voices, we need direct connections and open lines of communication. A foundational part of our work is building a communication infrastructure in our neighborhoods to deliver news, information and resources to people when and how they need it. The pop-up newsroom, which travels to community events by request, has been crucial; because of this approach, we tripled our text subscriber list in the past year, from less than 200 to more than 600, allowing us to reach and hear from even more neighbors. 

Every time we send a text, we receive a “Thank you,” a heart emoji or even an “Amen.” The responses are a barometer for what our neighbors need and fuel us for the work ahead.