South Dallas says goodbye to historic Billy Earl Dade Middle School building

South Dallas community leaders, residents, and DISD staff gathered in late May for a final farewell to the old Billy Earl Dade building on Malcolm X and Al Lipscomb.

DISD Trustee Ed Turner hosted the ceremony to usher out the building, which is undergoing a three-to-four-month demolition process to make way for the proposed $50 million Adelio Williams Career Institute East. The institute currently is housed at Lincoln High School. 

The ceremony included remarks from former Dallas City Council member and influential South Dallas leader Diane Ragsdale; Brent Alfred, Dallas ISD chief of construction services; and Dr. Todd Atkins, senior pastor at Salem Institutional Baptist Church.

“It’s not that we are eliminating the past, because we cannot understand today if yesterday did not happen,” Ragsdale told those gathered. “We need to honor the past but also celebrate the future that this institution represents — an institution that will help improve the standard of living for future generations.”

Originally founded in 1912 as John Henry Brown School — named after a former Dallas mayor and state legislator — the school primarily served the Jewish community of South Dallas. As the neighborhood shifted from a mostly Jewish to a mostly Black neighborhood, it was renamed in honor of Billy Earl Dade, one of Dallas ISD’s first African American principals.

DISD closed the South Dallas campus in 2013 after opening the new Billy Earl Dade Middle School, located across the street from the historic Black school.

During his remarks, Alfred said the old Billy Earl Dade site was put out to bid. A wealthy outsider expressed interest in the property and reportedly planned to place a statue on the land to provoke and taunt South Dallas residents, but DISD put a stop to it.

“We heard loud and clear from the community that this land belongs to the people who lived with it, suffered by it and dreamed through it,” Alfred said. “[You] told us to keep DISD ownership and give South Dallas residents a seat at the table.”

Dallas Free Press reached out to Dallas ISD media officials asking for interviews and more information on the bidding process and buyers Alfred referred to.

The district did not provide context or agree to interviews, and instead told us to file an open records request. 

At a DISD board meeting on March 20, eight of the nine board members approved renaming Career Institute East to the Adelio Williams Career Institute East, after a beloved South Dallas plumber who died in 2021 — Adelio Williams.

The 2020 DISD bond package included hundreds of millions of dollars to build four new career institutes, according to previous Dallas Free Press reporting. Career Institute East opened that fall in South Dallas’ Lincoln Instructional Center and now serves students in the Lincoln attendance zone as well as students bussed from Bryan Adams, Woodrow Wilson, Madison, and Samuell high schools.

The institutes are designed to provide students with specialized training and career programs through courses, projects and hands-on experiences. Students can earn industry certifications, complete internships, and develop skills for high-demand careers with a living wage after graduation according to DISD. 

Eight new programs will be offered in the new career institute building:

• Architecture 
• Automotive
• Aviation
• Dental assistant
• EMT 
• Game design & software development 
• Mechatronics and manufacturing 
• Welding

The move from Lincoln High School is due to the building’s architectural limitations and historical landmark protections, and the challenge of retrofitting a career institute into the existing structure. To accommodate eight programs offering 16 courses, the old Dade building is being demolished to make way for the new facility.

“The career institute came to South Dallas because a community refused to be ignored. Many came to buy this land. But we stuck to our values and our vision. For over two years, we met, organized, and insisted this land serve our children — not developers.” Turner told the crowd, which responded with applause.

According to Alfred, the start of construction for the new Career Institute East campus at the Old Billy Earl Dade site is expected to begin in the third quarter of 2026, pending City Council approval.