Special to I Messenger Media
Dallas history is complicated–and the life of Juanita Jewel Craft is at the center of much of that history.
More than an activist and politician, Mrs. Craft’s story and legacy embodied the core values of the national quest for civil rights and equity that dominated much of the 20th century.
Though many in Dallas have sought to claim her as their own, her story is much bigger and more expansive than the city–or, even the state.
Filmmaker Lindell Singleton (Rising: The Hall of Negro Life, Echoes from the Hill, Betrayal of Justice: A Buffalo Story) is producing and directing The Craft of Justice, a six-part documentary series about Craft’s landmark life.
Episode One, entitled Craft’s Kids began filming in December at the Juanita Craft House and Civil Rights Museum on Warren Avenue and other locations across South Dallas.
Ed Gray (Dallas Justice Coalition, Remembering Black Dallas), met the civil rights icon when he was in high school. Deeply influenced by Mrs. Craft, Gray is one of the featured interviews in Episode One and has joined the team as co-executive producer of the series.
“I met Mrs Craft when I was 16 and she was 75,” said Gray, adding that she spoke to his high school class. “I viewed her as a grandmother. I fondly remember the wisdom she shared with me.”
Across six episodes, the series explores Craft’s journey through never-before-seen curated imagery melded with stunning interviews featuring historians, architects, activists and men and women whose lives were shaped by her extraordinary commitment to virtuous social justice. These commitments ranged from the integration of two major Texas universities (and the State Fair) to establishing over 180 youth chapters for the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP.)
Said Lindell Singleton: “Craft was a generational pioneer – an American legend. We were drawn to her remarkable story as an outgrowth of our PBS documentary about the Hall of Negro Life. Congresswoman Eddie Bernice Johnson, who was featured in Rising, spoke about Mrs. Craft.
He continued, “She was a woman of unrelenting courage and energy who grasped her place in history and her long standing relationships with Eleanor Roosevelt, Thurgood Marshall, A. Maceo Smith and Martin Luther King, Jr. add a national dimension to our story. It’s our duty to preserve her story for current and future generations.”
