The Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex has 1.2 million African-Americans, the 2nd-largest metro population of African-Americans in Texas.[1]
In 2007, Black Enterprise magazine ranked Dallas as a "Top 10 city for African-Americans".[2]
Freed slaves began to locate to the Dallas area when slavery was abolished.[3]
Freedmen's Cemetery was established in 1861.[4]
The Hamilton Park neighborhood was one of the first suburbs in Texas built for African Americans in 1953.[5]
In the mid-1800s, lynchings of African Americans took place in Dealey Plaza.[6]
In the late 19th century, there were over 11,000 black people in Dallas.[6]
In the 1990s, the number of African-Americans making annual incomes of $100,000 or more (adjusted to $75,000 as of 1990, from the circa 2005 number) increased by 300%. Around 2005, increasing numbers of African-Americans moved to suburban communities to the north.[7]
In 1995, Dallas elected its first black mayor, Ron Kirk.[8]
The Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex gained approximately 259,000 new African-Americans between 2010 and 2020, or a nearly 27% increase, 10th of U.S. metropolitan statistical areas during that time span.[9] According to the Brookings Institution, in years 2006–2010 the DFW area had an annual average of 7,678 black people migrate into the area, giving it the 4th-highest inward black migration of all U.S. metropolitan areas.
In 2012 Jamie Thompson of D Magazine stated that Dallas "still suffers from an image problem among black professionals who perceive other cities—Atlanta; Chicago; Houston; or Washington, D.C.—as being more appealing and friendly to blacks".[10]
In 2019, Dallas elected its second black mayor, Eric Johnson.[11]
Black-owned businesses in the Dallas-Fort Worth area make up about 3.0% which is just over 3,000 businesses.