Continuing to explore the area west down Elm St takes you underneath the Triple Underpass bridge and straight into Martyrs Park. For as long as I can remember, this park sat untouched, save for a bunch of trees and mowed ground cover. Not knowing the history of the place, I always thought it was an odd place for a park; one I assumed most people never realized was designated as such. MiCaih Thomas sums the place up nicely in a Dallas Observer article entitled Dallas Recognizes the History of Martyrs Park, Hidden in Plain Sight:
Just beyond Dealey Plaza, past the acrid smell beneath the Triple Underpass, lies Martyrs Park, a half-acre pocket of grass and weeds awash squeals of metal train wheels on Union Pacific tracks and the thrum of traffic on I-35.
I remember it lined with red oaks, with a sunny area in the middle where seasonal wildflowers reigned. Behind them was a dense matrix of trees, serving as a sort of barricade between the park and railroad tracks at the top of the hill. Nothing else.
I've walked by Martyrs Park a few times on my way to the courts building nearby when called for jury duty. So I was surprised when today I found the area cleared of trees near the railroad tracks, and a new path and structure built where the wildflowers once existed.
Today, a police officer sat in his cruiser next to a City of Dallas Parks truck. I was hesitant to check the area out at first given the insanity just up the street from the nearby event held for the 60th anniversary of JFK's assassination. But the newly built structure was calling my name, so ...
What I found was beautiful. A work of art that brings to light a part of Dallas history that for so many decades was almost entirely ignored.
The work is entitled Shadow Lines, dedicated to the victims of white supremacist violence in the area between 1853 and 1920. Several names are mentioned amongst a general grouping of white on black violence: Patrick Jennings, Rev. Samuel Smith, and Cato Miles, three black men who were lynched near the area in 1860 after being accused of starting a fire to start a slave revolt.
Where there is shadow, there is light ... and all that. Also, I really do hope the wildflowers return.
