An ongoing illustrative history study
This piece originally posted 11/27/2020
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"When I finally do leave this Earth, I want them to remember one thing- I raised hell with them."
Austin-born Juanita Jewel Shanks Craft was motivated to raise hell quite early on --when she was 16 her mother died of tuberculosis after being turned away from Texas state hospitals because of her skin colour. Craft worked a number of low-paying jobs throughout Texas yet nonetheless managed to secure a college education, and ultimately joined the NAACP in 1935. Civil rights organizing became her raison d'etre --over her lifetime she created and organized 182 NAACP branches throughout the state of Texas.
She holds the distinction of being the first-ever Black woman to vote in Dallas County (1944), and in the 1950s she advocated for integrating public universities such as the University of Texas and North Texas State College. Even more significantly (at least from a cultural standpoint), she successfully pushed for integration of Texas's iconic State Fair in 1967. In particular the NAACP youth council was her focus, and she continued to set an example for the up-and-coming generation by leading pickets of various restaurants, lunch counters, theaters, public transportation, and other venues across Texas throughout the 1960s.
In 1975, at the venerated age of 73, Craft was elected to the Dallas City Council, and even returned for a second term.
Learn more at: https://www.humanitiestexas.org/news/articles/craft-civil-rights
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