{"id":363,"featured":0,"modified":"2026-04-17 19:32:52","latitude":32.76464829999999750498318462632596492767333984375,"longitude":-96.7669004498264797575757256709039211273193359375,"title":"Juanita Craft and the NAACP","subtitle":"","fullsize":"https://easttexashistory.org/files/fullsize/1aeabf2c20d46990f555a237e60d6c75.jpg","address":"2618 Warren Ave, Dallas, TX 75215","all_locations":[],"zoom":7,"creator":["Jamie Pfeil"],"description":"Juanita Craft is a name that should be remembered and honored with other civil rights heroes such as Rosa Parks and Thurgood Marshall. Craft played a vital role in the civil rights movement in Dallas, Texas, working tirelessly to bring an end to discriminatory practices and segregation. She is remembered as the first Black woman to vote in the Democratic Party primary in Dallas County, as well as the first Black woman deputized in the state to collect the poll tax. However her commitment to the young Black community of Dallas was her primary passion.
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\r\nJuanita Jewel Shanks was born in Round Rock, Texas in 1902. As the granddaughter of formerly enslaved people, Craft grew up with a keen understanding of the social inequities she faced. Her father was an educator and Craft was raised with an appreciation for education and the opportunities education can afford. However, Craft also saw the realities of segregation in her own educational experiences: “There was always a great big school over here for the white students, and over there just a little shack of three rooms or four rooms. I think at Columbus there were about ten rooms. I think at Rockdale there were ten or twelve rooms. But regardless of where a [Black] child lived, he had to come way across [town] to that one school.”
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\r\nAfter high school Craft attended Prairie View Normal and Industrial School where she graduated with a certificate in dressmaking in 1921. Craft relocated to Dallas in 1925 and began working at the Adolphus Hotel. Her position at the Adolphus gave her insight into the highest ranks of White society in Dallas; she attended to elite guests from throughout the state as well as international dignitaries like Eleanor Roosevelt and celebrities such as Charles Lindbergh. Yet Craft herself was subject to the Jim Crow discriminatory customs and laws of the day.
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\r\nIn 1935, Craft joined the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). Over the next decade she became increasingly involved and was appointed as the Membership Chairman of the Dallas Branch, leading a membership campaign which brought total membership to 7,000 by 1946. Soon Craft was appointed as State Organizer for the Texas branches of the NAACP. In this position she worked to raise money, lead meetings, and organize new chapters. By 1958 Craft helped to organize 182 branches of the NAACP across the state. In an interview with Michael Gillette, Craft recalled her travels across the state: “I'd like to say that this is when I became a real Texan because having gone from Pampa up in the Panhandle on down to El Paso from that direction. . . .But I found again my desire was building higher when I got into Dickens County and saw Negro children picking cotton and white children being bussed to school. . . .Your child needs to get a job picking cotton while the other children are getting an education. So these are the things that kept me alive, kept me determined to be a part of whatever force that we could use to destroy that kind of system.”
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\r\nCraft funneled that determination into the Dallas Youth Council. Youth Councils of the NAACP were designed for both students and non-students between the ages of 12 and 21. Craft provided education and training to these students in the hope that they would become future members of the NAACP. Her dedication to the young Black community of Dallas is legendary. In addition to organizing and supervising student trips all across the nation, she helped students make history on more than one occasion as they initiated protests against segregation.
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\r\nIn the mid 1950s Craft and the youth council set their sights on the Texas State Fair. A tradition dating back to the 1880s dictated that one single day was set aside specifically for Black Texans to attend the fair. By the 1950s Black fair-goers could technically enter on any day, but could only fully enjoy the fair experience on the so-called “Negro Achievement Day.” Fair officials made claims that the fair did not discriminate in any way, so Craft and her youth council members decided to put that claim to the test. Members attended the fair in its opening week and found consistent examples of discrimination; on multiple occasions the council members were turned away, denied service, treated with disrespect, or told to ‘come back on Negro Achievement Day.’
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\r\nThe council immediately developed a plan to picket the State Fair on the planned Negro Achievement Day. Craft and her students were at the fairgrounds by seven in the morning holding signs with slogans such as, “Don’t Sell Your Pride for a Segregated Ride - Stay Out!” The picket line had mixed results; many Black Texans who had traveled from out of town crossed the picket line in order to attend the fair. Nevertheless, Craft and the youth council drew publicity to their cause and they are remembered as the first major direct action protest involving Black youth in Dallas. Their efforts also earned the national title of Most Outstanding Youth Council from the NAACP in 1956.
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\r\nFor the next decade Craft continued to organize youth protests at lunch counters, department stores, and movie theaters. Dallas landmarks such as H.L. Green, Neiman Marcus, and the Majestic Theater were all targets. She helped students stage countless peaceful demonstrations designed to both disrupt business at these segregated institutions and direct media attention and pressure on the continued practice of segregation throughout Dallas.
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\r\nAfter the practice of formal segregation came to an end, Craft began to focus on education in order to support Black youth in the Dallas area. Most notably, she received the Linz Award in 1968 for her efforts to expose fraudulent trade schools that were operating in Dallas. These schools attracted students with false promises of opportunity. Craft directly assisted students who became stranded in Dallas without proper housing, education, or job opportunities. After bringing attention to this practice, her involvement led to the passage of local, state, and federal regulations of trade schools. Craft’s life of public service continued well into her seventies when she ran for a seat on the Dallas City Council. She served two terms as a council member, continuing to focus on improving the lives of minorities.
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\r\nCraft once said, “If we want to know who we are, what we have accomplished, then just look at the children.” While she had no biological children of her own, her years of commitment to children and young adults left an immeasurable legacy. Craft died on August 6, 1985. Her home at 2618 Warren Avenue in Dallas became a Dallas Landmark in 1999 and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. It also operates as the Juanita Craft Civil Rights House Museum.
","sponsor":null,"accessinfo":"","lede":"","website":"","related_resources":["Abernathy-McKnight, Mamie L. “Craft, Juanita Jewel Shanks (1902–1985).” Texas State Historical Association Handbook of Texas online.","Behnken, Brian D. \"The \"Dallas Way\": Protest, Response, and the Civil Rights Experience in Big D and Beyond.\" The Southwestern Historical Quarterly 111, no. 1 (2007): 1-29.","Gillette, Michael L. \"The Rise of the NAACP in Texas.\" The Southwestern Historical Quarterly 81, no. 4 (1978): 393-416.","Gillette, Michael L. “The Craft of Civil Rights.” Humanities Texas online. February 2010. Accessed September 11, 2021. https://www.humanitiestexas.org/news/articles/craft-civil-rights.","Glasrud, Bruce A, Archie P. McDonald and Alwyn Barr. Blacks in East Texas History: Selections From the East Texas Historical Journal. College Station: Texas A&M University Press, 2008.","Northington Burrow, Rachel. “Juanita Craft: Desegregating the State Fair of Texas.” Legacies: A History Journal for Dallas and North Central Texas 16, no. 1 (2004): 17-24.","Siefker, Kathryn. “NAACP Youth Council Picket Line, 1955 Texas State Fair.” Bullock Museum online. January 2015.mhttps://www.thestoryoftexas.com/discover/artifacts/naacp-state-fair-spotlight-012315."],"factoids":[],"files":{"https://easttexashistory.org/files/fullsize/1aeabf2c20d46990f555a237e60d6c75.jpg":{"id":2644,"mime-type":"image/jpeg","title":"NAACP Youth Council Picket Line","description":"Under the direction of Juanita Craft, members of the NAACP Youth Council organized a picket on Negro Achievement Day at the State Fair of Texas in 1955. Despite the general manager's claims that the fair was "open to all," council members were frequently denied service or turned away. The Texas State Fair would not be fully desegregated until 1967. | https://www.thestoryoftexas.com/discover/artifacts/naacp-state-fair-spotlight-012315 | October 1955","thumbnail":"https://easttexashistory.org/files/square_thumbnails/1aeabf2c20d46990f555a237e60d6c75.jpg"},"https://easttexashistory.org/files/fullsize/3cd8f4900b916f8553788cfd1b9fcded.jpg":{"id":2652,"mime-type":"image/jpeg","title":"Portrait of a Young Juanita Craft","description":"This portrait was taken at the Adolphus Hotel in 1925. Juanita Craft worked at the Adolphus as a bell woman. While working at the hotel, Juanita assisted Dallas elites as well as international celebrities and dignitaries such as Eleanor Roosevelt. Decades later, in 1984, Juanita would receive the Eleanor Roosevelt Humanitarian Award. | From the Juanita Craft Collection MA81.05, Dallas History & Archives Division, Dallas Public Library. | 1925","thumbnail":"https://easttexashistory.org/files/square_thumbnails/3cd8f4900b916f8553788cfd1b9fcded.jpg"},"https://easttexashistory.org/files/fullsize/2de618344efb86bb17e8a56b88540175.jpg":{"id":2653,"mime-type":"image/jpeg","title":"1948 Photograph of NAACP Leaders","description":"Juanita Craft, second from left, with other leaders of the NAACP. (Front row, left to right: unidentified, Juanita Craft, Walter White, Peyton Medlock. Back row: John J. Jones, M. T. Blanton, Thurgood Marshall.) In 1945 Craft led an NAACP campaign, bringing membership levels in Texas up to 7,000. In the subsequent decade in her role as State Organizer, Craft organized 182 branches of the NAACP across the state of Texas. | From the Juanita Craft Collection MA81.05, Dallas History & Archives Division, Dallas Public Library. | 1948","thumbnail":"https://easttexashistory.org/files/square_thumbnails/2de618344efb86bb17e8a56b88540175.jpg"},"https://easttexashistory.org/files/fullsize/77a62d0cabb62c50d1dc0a1e9c48c655.jpg":{"id":2655,"mime-type":"image/jpeg","title":"Juanita Craft and Civil Rights Leaders","description":"As State Organizer for the Texas Branch of the NAACP, Craft was responsible for holding meetings, raising funds, and organizing new chapters. She worked closely with other leaders in the NAACP. Craft and Lula B. White traveled across the South on many occasions. In an interview, Craft shared recollections of her time with White, “She was an asset to any group that she was involved with. We have gone on trips together. She would take the branch and the policy of NAACP part. I was the rabble-rouser.” [Juanita Craft (seated, center) with Madison Jones, Jr., Gloster B. Current (standing, left to right) and Dr. J. Leonidas Leach, Harry T. Moore (seated, left to right)]. | From the Juanita Craft Collection MA81.05, Dallas History & Archives Division, Dallas Public Library.","thumbnail":"https://easttexashistory.org/files/square_thumbnails/77a62d0cabb62c50d1dc0a1e9c48c655.jpg"},"https://easttexashistory.org/files/fullsize/54b0e08e8ae950b764f9f96d24a0ab5d.jpg":{"id":2651,"mime-type":"image/jpeg","title":"Dallas NAACP Youth Council Back To School Campaign","description":"Juanita Craft worked with the NAACP Youth Council of Dallas throughout the 1950s and 1960s. As the daughter of an educator, the value of learning was instilled in her from a young age. She once said, “No matter how many doors are open you can’t go in them unless you have some money, and you’re not going to have the money if you don’t have the education.” | https://www.texascooppower.com/texas-stories/history/witness-to-struggle | 1956","thumbnail":"https://easttexashistory.org/files/square_thumbnails/54b0e08e8ae950b764f9f96d24a0ab5d.jpg"},"https://easttexashistory.org/files/fullsize/0f44308d254d249a03cdb026fa86d32a.jpg":{"id":2664,"mime-type":"image/jpeg","title":"Protester at the Texas State Fair","description":"The NAACP Youth Council’s protest of Negro Achievement Day is remembered as the first major direct action protest involving Black youth in Dallas. Their actions inspired further protest at the State Fair and elsewhere. In this 1961 image, Mrs. M.A. Flanagan, who served at one time as president of the Dallas Branch of the NAACP, holds a sign that reads, “There is No Substitute for Freedom - Full Service or None.” | From the Marion Butts Collection PA2005-4, Dallas History & Archives Division, Dallas Public Library.

https://catalog.dallaslibrary.org/polaris/search/title.aspx?ctx=1.1033.0.0.6&pos=3&cn=931546","thumbnail":"https://easttexashistory.org/files/square_thumbnails/0f44308d254d249a03cdb026fa86d32a.jpg"},"https://easttexashistory.org/files/fullsize/d9fcde2773aa18395c6455d9f831bae5.jpg":{"id":2662,"mime-type":"image/jpeg","title":"Citizens Protest Segregation at H.L. Green","description":"After challenging the Texas State Fair, Craft and the NAACP Youth Council targeted segregation at lunch counters and movie theaters throughout Dallas. In many cases the youth protesters inspired their adult counterparts to take up the fight. This image shows Dallas ministers Rev. E.W. Thomas and Rev. H. Rhett James, in front of H.L. Green's fighting for integrated lunch counters. | From the Marion Butts Collection PA2005-4, Dallas History & Archives Division, Dallas Public Library.

https://catalog.dallaslibrary.org/polaris/search/title.aspx?ctx=1.1033.0.0.6&pos=2&cn=928639 | 1960","thumbnail":"https://easttexashistory.org/files/square_thumbnails/d9fcde2773aa18395c6455d9f831bae5.jpg"},"https://easttexashistory.org/files/fullsize/76a537c614e339490e61d225b2f37f9c.jpg":{"id":2654,"mime-type":"image/jpeg","title":"Neighborhood Improvement in South Dallas","description":"In the 1950s and 1960s, Dallas neighborhoods were segregated. The area known as Oak Cliff in South Dallas was home to the majority of Black residents living in Dallas at the time. This photograph, taken in January 1967, shows Juanita Craft (second from right) with members of a Neighborhood Improvement Program. | From the Dallas Morning News Collection PA83-42, Dallas History & Archives Division, Dallas Public Library.
\r\n | January 1967","thumbnail":"https://easttexashistory.org/files/square_thumbnails/76a537c614e339490e61d225b2f37f9c.jpg"},"https://easttexashistory.org/files/fullsize/698a00b5fac156e998a95dc025fc3477.jpg":{"id":2661,"mime-type":"image/jpeg","title":"Juanita Craft as Dallas City Councilwoman","description":"With decades of service to the NAACP under her belt, Craft decided to run for the Dallas City Council. Already in her seventies, she became the second Black woman elected to the Dallas City Council. She served two terms during which she continued to focus on improving the lives of minorities living in Dallas. | From the Dallas Morning News Collection PA83-42, Dallas History & Archives Division, Dallas Public Library. | 1976","thumbnail":"https://easttexashistory.org/files/square_thumbnails/698a00b5fac156e998a95dc025fc3477.jpg"},"https://easttexashistory.org/files/fullsize/1c3c02e02a6e733d0ef4b5210e005c6a.jpg":{"id":2663,"mime-type":"image/jpeg","title":"Juanita J. Craft Civil Rights House","description":"Craft frequently hosted members of the NAACP Youth Council and other young residents of Dallas at her home on Warren Avenue. She believed that children were a community’s most precious resource and devoted her life to training others who might shape the future of civil rights in Dallas. Many legends of the civil rights movement also visited Craft’s home, including Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Her home became a local landmark in 1999 and operates as the Juanita Craft Civil Rights House Museum. | https://mccoycollaborative.com/portfolio-posts/jj-craft-house/","thumbnail":"https://easttexashistory.org/files/square_thumbnails/1c3c02e02a6e733d0ef4b5210e005c6a.jpg"}}}