Arlington’s Black residents found refuge in ‘The Hill.’ Locals needed to share its story

Arlington area artists, librarians and academics are in a race against time to capture memories and documents from former residents of the city’s historic Black neighborhood, The Hill.

No topic is off the table and no person’s story too insignificant, the team told interviewee Margaret Taylor and her granddaughter, Tayla Vaughn, as they pored over photos during an interview June 23 at George W. Hawkes Downtown Library.

Interviews like Taylor’s will inform context behind the documentary series “Echoes from the Hill” and augment the library’s Arlington Black History Community Archive. The documentary and archives will capture life in an area that was once the sole designated neighborhood for Black residents in the Jim Crow era, said Shirley Adams, who has helped the teams put together the project.

“These people now are in their 60s, 70s and 80s,” Adams said. “If we don’t capture their stories now, they may be lost.”

The Hill formed when segregated neighborhoods were the norm, and served as the only area specifically designated for Black residents. Interviewees described the area to Adams like a “cocoon” — a place where families were not held to Jim Crow-era policies, practices and mindsets. In this space, community institutions, including restaurants, churches and schools, created a thriving neighborhood. A couple churches have remained and risen to regional prominence, including Mount Olive Baptist Church, Church of God in Christ and Arlington Chapel AME.

The five-block area of the Hill, located just northwest of the town’s original boundaries, included Taylor, Prairie, Sanford and West streets, according to Arlington Historical Society.

The neighborhood dissipated in the mid 1960s, as residents moved elsewhere following housing and school desegregation and more job opportunities. Historical markers commemorate the area and several landmarks.

History of The Hill

Gaps remain in the documented history of the Hill.

Multiple research articles point to gaps in census data and missing photographs of homes, businesses and churches that could tell more about the area just northwest of downtown. The Hill has also lost several buildings to development, some of which could have qualified for historical designation, according to a 1999 study of the area’s cultural resources.

The Hill formed and matured largely independent of the rest of the city. None of the Hill’s streets connected to prominent city streets, and outside the neighborhood, Black residents had to contend with hostility from whites and segregation-area policies.

“It’s like a protective kind of entity, or barrier against,” Adams said. “Your sense of second-class citizenship was not affirmed until you left that protective place.”

Arlington’s first school for Black students opened by the 1890s and existed in some form until 1965, when the city’s school district shut down Booker T. Washington School and reopened as a special education facility. Without area high schools for Arlington area Black students, children had to take public buses to I. M. Terrell High School in Fort Worth using their own funds. Few students received an education beyond eighth grade until the late 1960s.

Hospitals’ segregation policies placed Black families in “life-and-death” situations until 1958, according to a virtual library timeline, because residents were forced to go to Fort Worth hospitals until Arlington institutions were created.

Unable to access resources afforded to their white neighbors, Hill residents created a thriving community from local businesses, as well as its schools and churches. Lou Henry Taylor, who opened a grocery store on Taylor Street in 1946 which grew to the local mainstay Lou’s Blue Lounge, is credited as a pioneer in local business.

The lounge, known as a “juke joint,” was one of several places where people could drink and listen to blues music. Gloria Echols, who taught in the Hill for 20 years, former Booker T. Washington Principal George Stevens and longtime Mount Olive pastor Rev. Norman L. Robinson have roads and parks named after them.

Filling in missing history

Mark Dellenbaugh, a local history and geneology librarian, and Arlington Historical Society Director Geraldine Mills have worked with prominent Black families to digitize historical items since 2016. Dellenbaugh wanted to reach out to more community members, but did not want a transactional relationship with sources.

Then came the documentary pitch. An idea for a city event commemorating Martin Luther King Jr. Day sparked the partnership between the library, Sagasse Media Group, creatives and longtime residents.

Arlington’s MLK Celebration Committee, which organizes city programs to celebrate the federal holiday, had planned a series surrounding lessons from Black elders. Deborah Spell, Sagasse’s vice president of public affairs, saw potential for a longtime project — and a possibility to bring in filmmaker Lindell Singleton and screenwriter Dru Murray.

“This film was a godsend to me because it enabled me to work with folks that had established relationships with people in the Black community in Arlington,” Dellenbaugh said.

That’s where Adams, a 47-year Arlington resident, used her connections. She began with those she knew and gathered numbers from Mount Olive Baptist Church. Interviewees pointed her to others in the community, and filled in their friends about the projects.

“When it got beyond people that I knew, I went on the recommendation of other people that knew them,” Adams said. “They gave credibility to what we were doing.”

The team has conducted a handful of in-person videos in Arlington’s downtown library, plus multiple Zoom interviews with local experts. From interviews, the team has identified people in photographs and gained more context behind the community.

The film and archival team hope immortalizing stories and documents from the Hill will stick with people as other parts of local, state and U.S. history. Where the library documents will be largely available online for research, the documentary will add another layer of understanding beyond text and photographs.

“Part of the intent is to make sure that no one has a reason not to know these things,” Dellenbaugh said.

Those interested in submitting items for library consideration can email LibLearningDist@arlingtontx.gov or call Dellenbaugh at 817-459-6795.