I've been wanting to visit the historical marker for The Lynching of Allen Brooks for a few months now. Why? I'm not entirely sure. But I suspect it's because it serves as an important reminder of a historical event that Dallas, at least for the longest time, would seemingly rather forget.
The short story is that in 1910, a mob of over 3,000 white men gathered around the Dallas County Courthouse (now the Old Red Court House) and demanded that a 59-year old black man named Allen Brooks be lynched. Mr. Brooks was awaiting his court hearing for being accused of the attempted rape of the 2.5 year old daughter of the family in which he was employed as a handyman.
Members of the mob broke into the courtroom, tied a rope around his neck and threw him out of a second-floor window of the courthouse where his skull fractured upon impact. A separate faction of the mob kicked and beat him before they dragged him half a mile away to the intersection of Main and Akard Streets.
I find it hard to imagine the amount of collective hate that goes into such an act. The 3,000 dudes demanding a lynching, and the 5,000 gathered around the Elks Arch where Allen Brooks was later hung from a telegraph pole. He hung for 10 minutes before being cut down, and there is a postcard with a photo from that day. There are men, women and children gathered in the street. It's fucked.
I had a meeting tonight in downtown, and knew I wanted a walk afterwards, so I made sure to pack my rucksack with a 20lb plate for a (very) warm evening hike through downtown.
My walk began near the site of my meeting, and I first made my way to the intersection of Main and Akard to view the historical marker. I then walked down to the Old Red Court House, and back to the intersection of Main and Akard. I want to make a note here that this section is not an insignificant distance.
The purpose of walking back and forth on Main was to at least try to gain some glimpse of perspective to what might have been going through people's minds that day. Of course, I'll never know for sure. But the distance – about a half mile – suggests to me that they were certainly committed to the act with their convictions.
The walk was more than just remembrance of an awful event of the past, it was a chance to observe the place today. Walking through any big city can be an interesting adventure into its history. But you don't have to do a deep dive to appreciate it – observing what's right in front of you is often interesting enough.
Standing in front of the El Centro campus of Dallas College, the result of one of the many Goals of Dallas to re-imagine Dallas after the assassination of JFK, you are presented with a broad spectrum of history. On one end there are buildings standing from where they were built in the 1800s, and on the other, glowing in the dark sky, modern symbols of what Dallas has seemingly always been about – money.
As I was walking to my car after riding the train home, I noticed feeling alive once again – something that's been missing lately as I've been stuck inside in front of a computer, trying to escape the heat. But sometimes diving into discomfort is what's needed to feel alive – whether that's the insane heat this summer has brought to Dallas, or the discomfort from peering into an uncomfortable past.
A note regarding GPS accuracy ...
Tall buildings have historically been problematic for the accuracy of GPS tracks. This route was recorded with a Garmin Fenix 3HR, an older watch with older GPS chips. I probably should have just used my phone for this route, as it is equipped with the much more capable dual-frequency GPS technology. But I didn't, so the result is a mess. I recently picked up a new watch with similar technology, the Coros Apex 2 Pro, so future routes in areas with tall buildings should track much more accurately regardless.