The African American Museum in Dallas welcomes spring with an array of activities plus a powerful exhibition featuring the works by celebrated Oak Cliff artist Arthello Beck Jr., the first African American to open an art gallery in Dallas. Additional activities include a conference on the underground railroad in Texas, the Texas Black Sports Hall of Fame event, lectures by women leaders during Women’s History Month, a concert by the oldest Scott Joplin Chamber Orchestra in the U.S. and more.
2022 SPRING EXHIBITION LINEUP
“Humanization: The Artistic Eye of Arthello Beck Jr.”
March 22-April 15, 2022, FREE
Later this year, the City of Dallas will erect a statue in honor of artist Arthello Beck Jr. (1941-2004) – the first African American to open a gallery in Dallas – in Twins Falls Park in South Oak Cliff. As a tribute, the African American Museum will exhibit 35 of Beck’s vividly colored paintings to show the diversity of his artwork and how it not only captured the daily lives of African Americans in Dallas but also addressed social, political and religious subjects in a variety of mediums. The exhibit – “Humanization: The Artistic Eye of Arthello Beck Jr.” – will remind those familiar with his artwork of the breadth and depth of his artistic vision and introduce it to a new audience.
In 1970 at age 29, Beck said: “I am alive, and I am Black! Therefore, I am motivated to paint the human elements and conditions that affect humanity. Truth has motivated me to paint along with a desire to express myself. Because I am life, I am compelled to paint the realities of life. Therefore, I have a strong desire to communicate with Black people through my paintings, so they won’t become isolated from one another.”
Jennifer Monet Cowley, the exhibition curator and designer of the City’s public art sculpture, describes her inspiration. “In this exhibition, Humanization, I selected works of art that inspired the public art sculpture that I have designed along with other works of art that depict realistic scenes of Black family life. Arthello’s quote describes his desire for decency and respect to be restored to all Black people. This statement still rings true in 2022, with the rise of the Black Lives Matter movement growing in significance and impact since the brutal murders of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor at the hand of police in 2020.”
Also, an Artist Talk will be held Saturday, March 26, from 11 a.m.-1 p.m. at the Museum, featuring Cowley along with special guests Mae Beck, the wife of the late Arthello Beck Jr., and his best friend, Carl Sidle.
EXTENDED! “African American Pioneers in Science, Technology, Engineering, Architecture and Math”
Now through March 27, 2022, FREE
The African American Pioneers in Science, Technology, Engineering, Architecture and Math exhibition showcases approximately 160 replicas and examples of items invented or improved by African Americans, including the IBM computer, traffic light, laser cataract surgery, auto transmission and more. Presented by Fluor, the family-friendly exhibition is designed to inspire and enlighten, while paving the way for the next generation of STEAM innovators to think bold and outside the box.
EXTENDED! “The History of the Prairie View Interscholastic League: Black High School Sports in Texas in the Era of Segregation”
Now through April 3, FREE
An exhibition of the players, teams and the impact and dominance of Black high school sports in Texas when racial segregation forced African Americans to create their own interscholastic sports league.
EXTENDED: “Politics, Protest and Black Progress in Dallas in the 1980s: The Photographs of George Fuller”
Now through March 31, FREE
This exhibition features photographs by Dallas photographer George Fuller that capture the fight for 14-1, the protests against police brutality and progressive Black politics in Dallas in the 1980s.
NOTE: Details regarding two other spring exhibitions – Yanga: Journeys Toward Freedom (April 8-Oct. 16, 2022) and Chasing Perfection: The Legacy of Architect John S. Chase (May 5-Oct. 30, 2022) will be announced at a later date.
DALLAS LITERARY FESTIVAL FEATURING AUTHOR AND NEW YORK TIMES COLUMNIST CHARLES BLOW – “The state of American journalism: Where are we, where are we going?”
Sunday, March 20, at noon, FREE. Reservations required at dallasliteraryfestival.org
As part of SMU’s Dallas Literary Festival, Charles M. Blow, an acclaimed journalist and op-ed columnist for the New York Times who appears frequently on CNN, will be the featured speaker. He is the author of the New York Times bestselling memoir Fire Shut Up in My Bones. His newest book, THE DEVIL YOU KNOW: A Black Power Manifesto (Harper; January 26, 2021) delivers a resounding call to arms for Black Americans to amass political power and fight white supremacy. He lives in Atlanta.
ESTELLA DOTY YOUNG LEADERS LECTURE FEATURING THE REVEREND YVETTE BLAIR-LAVALLAIS
Saturday, March 26, at 2 p.m., FREE
The Doty Lecture provides a platform for emerging female leaders with emphasis on leadership, education and/or religion. Mrs. Doty was an educator/administrator in the Dallas Independent School District and an outstanding church leader in the community. This year’s presenter will be Reverend Yvette Blair-Lavallais, a pastor, public theologian, food justice activist and writer.
TEXAS BIENNIAL AFRICAN AMERICAN HISTORY CONFERENCE: UNDERGROUND RAILROAD FROM TEXAS TO MEXICO
Saturday, April 9, from 10 a.m.-3 p.m., FREE, but lunch is $20. Reservations required; contact wmdulaney@aamdallas.org
Traditionally, scholars who have studied the Underground Railroad maintained that African Americans escaped slavery by heading north to locations that supported the antislavery movement such as New York, Philadelphia, Cincinnati and. eventually, Canada. But historians have also found that there was a southern route that African Americans seeking freedom from slavery took through Texas into Mexico. This conference will feature scholars who have studied the southern route to freedom taken by African Americans, illuminating how African Americans found freedom in Mexico and made it as viable a “promised land” as Canada. An exhibition called Yanga: Journeys Toward Freedom (April 8-Oct. 16, 2022) will open in conjunction with the conference (details forthcoming).
FILM, BOOK REVIEW AND SIGNING by Dr. Terry Anne Scott, author of Lynching and Leisure: Race and the Transformation of Mob Violence in Texas.
Saturday, May 7, at 1 p.m., FREE
In Lynching and Leisure: Race and the Transformation of Mob Violence in Texas, Terry Anne Scott examines how white Texans transformed lynching from a largely clandestine strategy of extralegal punishment into a form of racialized recreation in which crowd involvement was integral to the mode and methods of the violence. In focusing on the sense of pleasure and normality that prevailed among the white spectatorship, this comprehensive study of Texas lynchings sheds new light on the practice understood as one of the chief strategies of racial domination in the 19th- and 20th-century South.
BESSIE LASSITER LECTURE ON WOMEN’S HEALTH FEATURING PSYCHOLOGIST DR. MYRNA DARTSON
Saturday, May 21, at 2 p.m., FREE
The Lassiter Distinguished Lecture in Women’s Healthcare is devoted to women in health and women’s healthcare issues. Bessie Lassiter, a registered nurse, was the wife of Dr. Wright L. Lassiter, Jr., who with his two children endowed the lecture. Established healthcare professionals will be invited to present the lecture as part of the African American Heritage Series and a part of the Museum’s Culture of Wellness Initiative. This year’s presenter is Dallas psychologist Dr. Myrna Dartson.
MAJOR EVENTS
TEXAS BLACK SPORTS HALL OF FAME INDUCTION LUNCHEON
Saturday, April 2, at 11:30 a. m.
TICKETS $125 AND UP. Reservations at 214/565-9026 ext. 326 (sells out quickly – limited seating available)
The Texas Black Sports Hall of Fame (TBSHOF), housed at the African American Museum, was established in 1996 to chronicle the sports history contributions made by African Americans. These include coaches and athletes of high character and athletic achievement, who are either Texans by birth or by athletic participation (collegiate or professional), and who have made recognizable contributions to African American culture and/or history. The 2022 class of inductees include football players Michael Irvin, Ray Crockett and Darrell Green; basketball players Kurt Thomas and Andrea Riley; baseball player Darren Oliver; track star Leroy Burrell; tennis player Vickie Sellers; rodeo veteran Cleo Hearn; coaches Robert Oran Evans and Earl Thompson; journalist Ralph Cooper; and Coach Gil Steinke, who will receive the Rube Foster Award Posthumously.
AN EVENING WITH SCOTT JOPLIN CHAMBER ORCHESTRA OF HOUSTON
Saturday, April 30, at 5 p.m.
The Black Academy of Arts and Letters
650 S. Griffin St. in Dallas (near Dallas City Hall)
GENERAL ADMISSION TICKETS $15 AND VIP TICKETS $75 via Ticketmaster.com
The Scott Joplin Chamber Orchestra (SJCO) is one of the nation’s oldest contemporary majority African-American community orchestras. Formed in 1983, its mission is to share music written by Black composers with communities that historically have had limited access to orchestral works. THE SJCO has performed mainstream works such as Handel’s Messiah but Black composers and traditions are its focus. Other notable performances include accompanying pop superstar Beyoncé as she sang the Star-Spangled Banner at Super Bowl XXXIII.
Sponsors of the African American Museum, Dallas, are Atmos Energy, Eugene McDermott Foundation, Fair Park First and Spectra Venue Management, Friendship West Baptist Church, Oncor, State Fair of Texas, and the City of Dallas’ Office of Arts and Culture.
The African American Museum is open Tuesdays through Fridays from 11 a.m.-5 p.m. and Saturdays from 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Located in Dallas’ historic Fair Park, the African American Museum is located at 3536 Grand Ave Dallas.
For more information, go to aamdallas.org or call 214-565-9026.