Oak Cliff

History

Oak Cliff was founded in 1887, when John S. Armstrong and Thomas L. Marsalis bought a farm of 320 acres (1.3 km2) on the west side of the Trinity River for $8,000. The farm was subdivided into 20-acre (81,000 m2) blocks, and the plat of the new town made. Armstrong and Marsalis began to develop the land into an elite residential area, which proved to be a success by the end of 1887, with sales surpassing $60,000. After a disagreement between the partners, Marsalis secured complete control over Oak Cliff's development. Armstrong went on to create his own elite residential development on the north side of Dallas, known as Highland Park.

According to the first plat filed, the original township of Oak Cliff extended as far north as First Street, later named Colorado Boulevard just north of Lake Cliff, then known as Spring Lake, and as far south as a pavilion below 13th Street. It was bounded on the east by Miller Street, later named Cliff Street, and on the west by Beckley Avenue. Jefferson Boulevard was the route of a steam railroad, and the principal north-south thoroughfare was Marsalis Avenue, then called Grand Street.

On November 1, 1887, lots worth $23,000 were sold in the newly opened Marsalis Addition (Oak Cliff) before noon, and on the following day, 91 lots were sold for $38,113. Figures published later in November gave the new suburb a population of 500. Marsalis developed the Oak Cliff Elevated Railway to provide the first transportation link to his new development, using a small shuttle train pulled by a "dummy" engine. The transportation system was modeled on one in New York City and was promoted as "the first elevated railway in the South". The railroad ran special trains to Oak Cliff Park, the home ground of the Dallas Hams. In reality, the railroad operated at ground level almost its entire course down Jefferson Boulevard and towards Lake Cliff; it only became slightly elevated as it crossed the Trinity River. This steam railway was continued for many years for commuters and pleasure seekers. Marsalis began two other development projects with the intent to promote Oak Cliff as a vacation resort. One was Oak Cliff Park, later called Marsalis Park and Zoo, a 150-acre (0.6 km2) park that included a two-mile-long (3 km) lake and a 2,000-seat pavilion in which dances and operas were held. Another was the Park Hotel, modeled after the Hotel del Coronado in San Diego, which included several mineral baths fed by artesian wells.

Oak Cliff incorporated in 1890 with a population of 2,470, and secured a post office, which operated until 1896. The community had four grocery stores, two meat markets, a hardware store, and a feed store. Businesses included the Texas Paper Mills Company (later Fleming and Sons), Oak Cliff Planing Mill, Oak Cliff Artesian Well Company, Patton's Medicinal Laboratories, and the Oak Cliff Ice and Refrigeration Company. A number of new elite residential areas developed by the Dallas Land and Loan Company had pushed the community's boundaries westward to Willomet Street. Oak Cliff's first mayor was Hugh Ewing. In 1891, the community's first newspaper, the Oak Cliff Sunday Weekly, was published by F. N. Oliver.

Politics

Dallas City Council

Oak Cliff is represented by four members of the Dallas City Council, of a total of 14 council members for the city as a whole. Using the boundaries described above, two of the council districts fall completely in Oak Cliff (Districts 1 and 4), while two others partially represent Oak Cliff (Districts 3 and 8).

District 1: Chad West

District 3: Zarin Gracey

District 4: Maxie Johnson

District 8: Tennell Atkins

Dallas County Commissioners Court

Oak Cliff is represented by two members of the Dallas County Commissioners Court. Both of these commissioners represent other areas of Dallas County, but Oak Cliff is within their district boundaries.

District 1: Dr. Elba Garcia

District 3: John Wiley Price

Texas House of Representatives

Oak Cliff is represented by several members of the Texas Legislature. All of the representatives listed below represent portions of Oak Cliff.

House District 100: Venton Jones

House District 103: Rafael Anchia

House District 104: Jessica Gonzalez

House District 110: Toni Rose

House District 111: Yvonne Davis

Texas Senate

Oak Cliff is represented by two members of the Texas Senate. Senator Royce West represents most of Oak Cliff, while a portion of west Oak Cliff is represented by Senator Nathan Johnson.

Senate District 16: Nathan Johnson

Senate District 23: Royce West

Neighborhoods

In addition, the Oak Cliff area encompasses Cockrell Hill, a separate municipality that is an enclave of Dallas. {{</nowiki>

Transportation

Light rail

Dallas Area Rapid Transit

Dallas Zoo Station

Tyler/Vernon Station

Hampton Station

Westmoreland Station

Streetcar

The Dallas Streetcar is a 1.6-mile (2.6 km) modern-streetcar line connecting Oak Cliff with downtown Dallas. It opened in April 2015, and extensions are planned.

Highways

Interstate 30

Interstate 35E

U.S. Highway 67

Education

School desegregation

In apprehension to the Brown vs. Board of Education Supreme Court ruling in 1954, the city of Dallas resisted desegregating their schools with the help of federal judges such as Judge William H. Atwell, the chief judge of the United States District Court for the Northern District of Texas. To combat the inevitability of desegregation of schools, Dallas in 1961 initiated a "Stairstep Plan". The proposed plan stated that all Dallas Independent School District (DISD) schools would begin desegregation one grade level per year, beginning with the first grade. DISD declared all of its schools desegregated in 1967, which was later found to be inherently false. In July 1971, of the total 180 DISD schools, 159 schools were found to meet the criteria to be classified as a one-race school (90% of the student population being either Black, Mexican American or Anglo). At the conclusion of the case in August 1971, Judge William M. Taylor of the District Court for the Northern District ruled in favor of a majority-to-minority transfer program. The program stated that all DISD students who attended schools where their race made up the majority of the student population would integrate into schools where their race was a minority by offering free transportation by bus. For the next few decades, Oak Cliff schools, along with those in South Dallas, became the focus of a long-running and bitter court battle over desegregation, one overseen by federal judge Barefoot Sanders. All of DISD's schools were officially declared desegregated by the city in 2003.

Public

The Dallas Independent School District operates district public schools.

Zoned high schools within the Oak Cliff area:

W.H. Adamson High School - 4A - Western (The replacement campus opened in 2012)

Sunset High School - 5A

Franklin D. Roosevelt High School - 4A - eastern

South Oak Cliff High School - 5A - southern

David W. Carter High School - 5A

Justin F. Kimball High School - 4A

Moisés E. Molina High School - 5A

A.W Brown Fellowship Leadership Academy Charter School

Optional high schools within the Oak Cliff area:

New Tech High School

Barack Obama Male Leadership Academy (all male)

Yvonne A. Ewell Townview Magnet Center

Dr. Frederick D. Haynes III Global Preparatory Academy at Paul Quinn College

Kathlyn Joy Gilliam Collegiate Academy

In 2011, the district closed Maynard Jackson Middle School. Prior to summer 2011, the community often complained about poor conditions at the school. DISD rezoned the students to Kennedy Curry Middle School in southern Dallas.

Zan Wesley Holmes Jr. Middle School, which opened in 2012, is in Oak Cliff.

Private

Bishop Dunne Catholic School - TAPPS

Tyler Street Christian Academy - TAPPS

University of North Texas at Dallas

Paul Quinn College

Christ for the Nations Institute

Mountain View College (part of the Dallas College system)

In popular culture

Oak Cliff has been home to a long list of musicians. When T-Bone Walker made his debut with Columbia in 1929, he lived in Oak Cliff and recorded as Oak Cliff T-Bone. Edie Brickell's second album included a song about life in Oak Cliff titled "Oak Cliff Bra". Other musicians from Oak Cliff include Michael Martin Murphey, Yella Beezy, Stevie Ray Vaughan, B. W. Stevenson, The D.O.C., Ray Wylie Hubbard and Jimmie Vaughan. The experimental death metal quintet Mē◦āt◦us was also from Oak Cliff. Actors Yvonne Craig (television's first Batgirl) and Stephen Tobolowsky lived in Oak Cliff.

Oak Cliff is home to the Sour Grapes art collective, founded by Carlos Donjuan, with his brothers Arturo and Miguel in 2000. The collective has murals throughout the Dallas area.

Former NBA Player and now Hall of Famer Dennis Rodman grew up in Oak Cliff.

Omar Gonzalez, a defender for Toronto in Major League Soccer and the U.S. national team, was born and raised in Oak Cliff.

Oak Cliff is the home of the Texas Theatre, located in West Jefferson Boulevard, where former resident Lee Harvey Oswald, the man suspected of killing U.S. President John F. Kennedy and shooting Dallas Police officer JD Tippit at 10th and Patton Streets, was arrested. The theater has appeared in many books and movies on the Kennedy assassination, including Oliver Stone's 1991 film, JFK. On November 22, 1963, Warren "Butch" Burroughs, who ran the concession stand at the theatre, said that Oswald came into the theater between 1:00 and 1:07 pm; he also claimed he sold Oswald popcorn at 1:15 pm. Julia Postal later said that Burroughs initially told her the same thing, although he later denied this. Theatre patron Jack Davis also corroborated Burroughs' time, claiming he observed Oswald in the theatre prior to 1:20 pm.

Oak Cliff is the setting of City Limit; the novel by Lantzee Miller is a coming-of-age story and metaphorical portrait of the beginning of Oak Cliff's recent rebirth and self-redefinition.