South Dallas

Already, 65,000 people in DFW are enrolled in Amazon’s SNAP delivery program, but the company found that people who live in “food deserts” weren’t using the service, so launched a new outreach program Jan. 1.

The Hon. Diane Ragsdale, who will turn 70 this year, has spent her entire life in South Dallas. Her story has been shaped by the neighborhood and, likewise, she has shaped her neighborhood in significant ways. She’s still fighting some of the same issues that led her to run for Council, and as a registered nurse, she approaches the systems as she would her patients — a belief in preventative medicine that will treat the underlying causes, not just the symptoms.

Southpoint is proving to be a miracle in this sparsely populated South Dallas neighborhood between Al Lipscomb and Martin Luther King Jr. boulevards. Access to healthy, affordable food has been among the top concerns for residents here.

Janie Cisneros credits her neighborhood-based activism to serendipity. She is the leader of Singleton United/Unidos, a newly established neighborhood association in West Dallas, fighting for clean air and the removal of the long-standing roofing shingles plant, GAF, from her residential neighborhood.

Highland Hills fresh foods grocery store, Save-U-More, struggles to stay open and widen the food desert gaps happening in South Dallas.

Dallas Free Press has successfully increased its text subscribers threefold and expanded its pop-up newsroom outreach to South Dallas events, while also supporting local Black- and Latino-owned businesses.

Dallas Free Press was recognized by the Institute for Nonprofit News and the Local Independent Online News Publishers for its innovative use of text messaging to grow readership and its commitment to community-centered journalism.

The Dallas Free Press has been selected as a host newsroom partner for Report for America, and is seeking donations to cover the salary of a fellow who will be reporting on the impact of gentrification in South Dallas and West Dallas.

The Dallas Free Press has been recognized for its local journalism efforts, including its coronavirus coverage, text message service, and new publisher of the year, and has partnered with local media outlets to provide coverage of South Dallas and West Dallas.

Dallas Free Press was named the New Publisher of the Year by LION Publishers, and received awards for Best Coronavirus Coverage and Game-Changer for its text messaging service, recognizing its commitment to community-centered journalism.

DART’s GoLink program is to easily get riders to a nearby rail station in areas where bus routes are scarce. Still, leaders found there was a significant need for more accessible transportation within the neighborhood. DART's Golink Pilot service is a curb-to-curb model being measured for its success in neighborhoods until January 21st.

Dallas Free Press is seeking an adept communicator who is highly organized to build strong relationships with potential major donors, funders and corporate sponsors.

Art comes in many forms and the ‘Arts of Oppression’ exhibit conveys that art is not limited to paintings or drawings, but extends to things like music, dancing and many other things which can be accessed if incarcerated individuals have access to resources.

Historians and journalists have documented — and today’s staffers recognize — the State Fair of Texas’ racist history. In the early 1900s the fair hosted one “Colored People Day” per year. It was discontinued in 1910.  On a Wednesday in fall 1923, Ku Klux Klan Day drew some 160,000 Klansmen to the fairgrounds for the initiation of the “largest class in the history of Klandom,” according to the flier, which included an application for membership on the back.  Negro Achievement Day launched in 1936. Each year on Oct. 14, Black fairgoers were admitted inside the gates. 

The key partners on the project say affordable housing is a topic none of them has been able to consistently address on their own — but it’s a vital, systemic issue demanding greater response.

It’s a tragic irony that the largest agriculture promoter in the state, the State Fair of Texas, is surrounded by a food desert, the neighborhood of South Dallas.

John Spriggins, manager of the South Dallas Cultural Center, launched the Juanita J. Craft House Artist in Residency to provide artists with studio space to create work that “capture[s] the immediacy of the moment where historical neighborhoods are rapidly changing due to socio-economic shifts."

Dallas Free Press conducted a study with UT Austin's Center for Media Engagement to better understand the needs of South and West Dallas communities, and will host events this fall to present the findings and discuss how their work will respond to the community's requests.

Dallas Free Press has launched a journalism pathway from Dallas high schools to Dallas newsrooms, starting with efforts to educate high school students. We are looking for a part-time journalism pathway coordinator to work with students in South Dallas and West Dallas.

The for-profit company connects nonprofits with unemployed individuals who can earn hourly wages by doing community benefit work.

A new neighborhood grocery store in South Dallas is part of Cornerstone Baptist Church's overall vision for a healthy community.

Aunt Bette's food pantry at St. Philip's in South Dallas is set up like a grocery store to provide choices to hungry neighbors. This can create the kind of positive psychological environment conducive to healthy consumer habits, experts say.

Bridge Builders, a nonprofit in the Bonton neighborhood of South […]

In an effort to address food insecurity in the community, Cornerstone Baptist Church is opening Southpoint Community Market, a neighborhood grocery store that will sell fresh and affordable food.

Now that anyone who wants a vaccine can get one, the challenge is overcoming barriers such as internet access needed to register for the vaccine and transportation needed to get to appointments, plus the even more daunting barrier of trust.

Bobbie Blair, lifetime early education South Dallas teacher is honored with a drive-by parad as she retires from 51 years of teaching at ChildCareGroup.

Paul L. Dunbar and H.S. Thompson schools in South Dallas received grants to support innovation in areas like leadership, technology, STEM.

A couple doors down from the corner of Driskell and Wendelkin streets in South Dallas is what used to be a beautiful historic landmark, the Kathlyn Joy Gilliam Museum, now completely damaged from two intentionally set fires.

Dallas Free Press has compiled a list of resources for South Dallas residents in the aftermath of the winter storm.

For many families in South Dallas, COVID has forced them to choose between sending their kids to school and facing financial and health risks, or keeping them home and dealing with isolation and learning loss.

Dallas ISD high school, middle school, and elementary students have missed days of school. Authorities presented a plan to address this.

“I’ve never seen the marquee light up before,” noted Elizabeth […]

Dallas Free Press is looking forward to 2021 with a range of initiatives, including a food apartheid series, internet access reporting, a media collaborative, civic engagement, and a deep dive into the history of Dallas' Black schools.

This Dallas Free Press survey will inform our community journalism efforts in South Dallas and West Dallas, and help our launching-soon local media collaborative determine its focus topic.

Dallas Free Press is releasing a survey to inform their community journalism efforts in South and West Dallas, and to help their launching local media collaborative determine its focus topic, with the results of the survey to be distributed to subscribers and used to shape their work in the coming year.

Dallas Free Press is committed to providing quality, trustworthy journalism to all communities in Dallas, and is seeking to hire two full-time reporters to focus on South Dallas and West Dallas in 2021.

The Dallas Free Press is hiring journalists to cover the challenges of food apartheid in South Dallas and West Dallas, while listening to and amplifying the voices of the community.

“The more things that we bring in that keep our residents in our community spending their money here, the more we create that ecosystem of a sustainable economy that is going to give back to this community, instead of all of our dollars being spent elsewhere,” says Councilman Adam Bazaldua.

Dallas Free Press has been using Subtext to send texts with community information to South Dallas and West Dallas residents, and is actively working to grow its reach.

Dallas Free Press recently asked questions about the South Dallas Fair Park PID to try to understand how these tax dollars are benefitting the neighborhood, and how COVID might be impacting the work.

A community survey showed that 45 percent of the people in the South Dallas zip codes of 75210 and 75215 don't have cars. Community leaders want to bring DART's GoLink service to the neighborhood.

For Reynolds, a South Dallas native who grew up in the South Blvd/Park Row neighborhood, The Help Show has been a spiritual journey that has allowed her to process her grief.