Little Egypt, Texas
USGenWeb >> TXGenWeb >> Dallas County >> Towns & Communities >> Little Egypt, Texas
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Little Egypt was an African-American community in Dallas County founded after the Civil War and continuing until the sale of the land in 1962. The neighborhood was located within Dallas city limits, north of Northwest Highway. It was about thirty-five acres in size. The land currently has large homes and the Northlake Shopping Center. Students from Richland College have been working on a project to discover what happened to the families after they left Little Egypt. Professors, Clive Siegle and Tim Sullivan of Richland, are conducting an archeological survey of the footprints of two of the Little Egypt houses on an empty lot in the area. Siegle has found a few artifacts on the site. Siegle would like to document oral history from those who once lived in the town.
The land was originally given to newly freed slaves after the end of
the Civil War. Jeff and Hanna Hill, the slaves receiving the land,
were freed by their masters in 1865. The Little Egypt Baptist Church
was built in 1870. The name was chosen to allude to the Biblical
story of the Exodus of Jews, who were slaves, from Egypt. The town
only had one school for all grade levels. Early on, people in the
community farmed as sharecroppers or worked on nearby plantations.
The McCree Cemetery served the residents of Little Egypt.
Over time, the area became surrounded by a wealthy white neighborhood. In November 1961, Little Egypt was rezoned for retail use.
In 1962, the residents sold their homes for cash to a group that wanted to build a shopping center on the land.[9] The organization that paid for the land also paid for the residents' moving costs Residents were advised by a trustee of the Little Egypt Baptist Church, Sarah Robinson, to sell their homes in order to get a better deal The real estate deal took a year to finalize. Residents' homes in Little Egypt did not have water or sewer connections and the church had no central heating or restrooms. The streets were unpaved. More than 200 people moved in 1962, all in one day. Residents either moved to the nearby Cedar Crest neighborhood in Dallas, to Oak Cliff or into Rockwall County. Many residents apparently left eagerly because they were able to purchase modern homes with the money given them by the development group.
.... Read More Wikipedia ....
Lisa C. Maxwell
Little Egypt was located just north of Northwest Highway between
Ferndale and Audelia, near White Rock Lake within the city limits of
Dallas in Dallas County. The community began after the Civil War,
when the site was deeded to former slaves Jeff and Hanna Hill, when
they were freed by their master in 1865. By 1870 they had built the
Little Egypt Baptist Church, and the community became known as
Little Egypt because the residents were delivered from bondage, as
in the biblical story. Though Little Egypt was officially within the
Dallas city limits, it remained a distinct community until 1962,
when developers bought the thirty to thirty-five acre tract, which
was across the street from Northlake Shopping Center, for retail
development. This purchase followed a November 1961 rezoning of the
area for retail use. At this time community residents were served by
dirt streets and lacked running water, electricity, gas, and indoor
plumbing. Of the twenty-eight families who owned land in the
community, two-thirds wished to find new homes close to one another.
Since the houses in Little Egypt were dilapidated and some residents
feared the buildings would be condemned, they were in favor of
selling the land. In May 1962 the 200 residents of Little Egypt
moved to their new homes, led by community patriarch William Hill,
who was eighty-nine at the time. The families were given enough
money to buy new houses and most of them settled either in Oak Cliff
or in Rockwall County. In the 1980s a controversy arose, in which
the former residents of Little Egypt were portrayed as being taken
advantage of for the commercial gains of white developers. The land
is now occupied by the Northlake Shopping Center and large homes
atop rolling hills.
BIBLIOGRAPHY: Jim Schutze, The Accommodation: The Politics of Race in an American City (Secaucus, New Jersey: Citadel, 1986). Vertical Files, Texas-Dallas History and Archives Division, Dallas Public Library.
Little Egypt in 1962. Courtesy of the Lake Highlands Advocate. Image available on the Internet and included in accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107.
Handbook of Texas Online, Lisa C. Maxwell, "LITTLE EGYPT, TX"
WBAP-TV (Television station : Fort Worth, Tex.). [News Script: Little egypt], item, May 15, 1962;
(https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc946557/m1/6/?q=%22little%20egypt%22:),
University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History,
crediting UNT Libraries Special Collections.
Description
Script from the WBAP-TV/NBC station in Fort Worth, Texas, covering a news story about residents of "Little Egypt" being bought out of their properties so that a new shopping center can be built.
Physical Description
3 p. ; 28 cm.
Creation Information
WBAP-TV (Television station : Fort Worth, Tex.) May 15, 1962.
Context
This item is part of the collection entitled: KXAS-NBC 5 News Collection and was provided by the UNT Libraries Special Collections to The Portal to Texas History, a digital repository hosted by the UNT Libraries. It has been viewed 84 times. More information about this item can be viewed below.
