Juanita Craft
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Juanita Craft (b. Juanita Jewel Shanks February 9, 1902-August 6, 1985) was a civil rights pioneer and City Council member in Dallas, Texas.
Born in Round Rock, Texas, Craft came to Dallas from the Austin area in 1925, being employed as a maid at the Adolphus Hotel and later as a seamstress.
She joined the NAACP in 1935, eventually becoming the Dallas NAACP membership chairman in 1942 and the Texas NAACP field organizer in 1946. She helped to organize 182 branches of the NAACP over eleven years.
After becoming the first black woman in Dallas County to vote in 1944, she also attempted to help enroll the first black student at North Texas State College (Now the University of North Texas), a battle eventually won through litigation. In 1955, she organized a protest of the State Fair of Texas against their policy of admitting blacks only on "Negro Achievement Day." Craft also assisted in the organization of protests and pickets in segregated lunch counters, restaurants, theaters and public transportation.
Following the 1954 decision in Brown v. Board of Education, Craft also worked to integrate the University of Texas Law School and the Dallas School District. She later served two terms on the Dallas City Council from 1975 and 1979.
Juanita Craft was given many awards for her efforts including the NAACP Golden Heritage Life Membership Award in 1978, the Eleanor Roosevelt Humanitarian Award in 1984 and was recognized by the NAACP for her fifty years of service shortly before her passing at the age of 83 on August 6, 1985.
The Juanita Jewel Craft Recreation Center and a Dallas city park were named in her honor as was a U.S. Post Office in southeast Dallas. Her home, the Juanita J. Craft Civil Rights House, is now part of Dallas' Wheatley Place Historic District.