Flashback : Dallas

William Moore

by Paula Bosse

These six portraits of ex-slaves who were living in Dallas in 1937 were included in Born in Slavery: Slave Narratives from the Federal Writers’ Project (Works Progress Administration/Work Projects Administration — WPA). See all of the Dallas portraits here.

UPDATED: Thanks to a comment from a reader, I’ve linked to the oral histories of those photographed. Click the links below the photos to read about their lives.

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Above, William Moore was born in Selma, Alabama about 1855; in 1937 he was living at 1016 ½ Good Street in Dallas.

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Below, Emma Watson was born in Ellis County about 1852; in 1937 she lived at 318 Allen Street.

Emma Watson

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Mose/Moses Hursey was born in Louisiana about 1855; in 1937 he lived at 1120 Tenth Street.

Mose Hursey/Moses Hursey

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Mary Ellen Johnson was born near San Marcos about 1860; in 1937 she owned a cafe at 1301 Marilla.

Mary Ellen Johnson

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Callie Shepard/Shepherd was born near Gilmer in 1852; in 1937 she lived at 4701 Spring Avenue.

Callie Shepard/Callie Shepherd

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Andrew Goodman was born near Birmingham, Alabama about 1840; in 1937 he lived at 2607 Canton.

Andrew Goodman

Update, Jan. 2024: I came across this portrait of Andrew Goodman by Dallas-trained artist Merritt Mauzey (1946, Smithsonian American Art Museum):

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From the Library of Congress site devoted to this project:

“Born in Slavery: Slave Narratives from the Federal Writers’ Project, 1936-1938” contains more than 2,300 first-person accounts of slavery and 500 black-and-white photographs of former slaves. These narratives were collected in the 1930s as part of the Federal Writers’ Project of the Works Progress Administration (WPA) and assembled and microfilmed in 1941 as the seventeen-volume “Slave Narratives: A Folk History of Slavery in the United States from Interviews with Former Slaves.”

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Sources & Notes

As noted, all portraits from the WPA “Born in Slavery” project, hosted on the Library of Congress website.

Related posts from Flashback Dallas:

• “Ads for Slaves Lost, Found, and For Sale in the Pages of The Dallas Herald”
• “Juneteenth at the Texas Centennial — 1936”

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Copyright © 2023 Paula Bosse. All Rights Reserved.