DALLAS — The last 20 years chained up is certainly no testament to what has gone down at the Forest Theater in South Dallas. It was the final curtain call, Tuesday.
If the walls could talk, they would describe the lights greeting actor Sidney Poitier, the walls echoing each Jimmy Hendrix strum, and the stage gripping the call and response from blues legend, B.B. King.
If the walls could talk, they’d tell you that anybody who was anybody performed at the historic theater. For the last time, WFAA exclusively looked at the inside of the 75-year-old theater that forced barriers out.
If the walls could talk, they’d tell how desegregation saved it. The once-segregated theater did not fully open its doors to Blacks until the 1950’s construction of US Highway 175, now known as S.M. Wright Freeway. That demolished more than a thousand homes leading to white flight. It is a moment etched in memories.
“When the neighborhood turned over and the Forest Theater lit up, I mean it was like a beacon. You had this big ball at the top,” said Donald Payton, a South Dallas resident who appeared in the 2021 video, “The Forest Theater: Past, Present, and Future.
“I came to concerts here,” said Willie Mae Colman, another South Dallas resident.
“I remember seeing Ike and Tina Turner here when it turned over,” said Ann Williams, Dallas Black Dance Theatre founder.
If the walls could talk, they’d speak of Erykah Badu who ran an arts center there.
If the walls could talk, they’d share the day it closed in 2009. It became memories of its once vibrant life that still inspires today. The nonprofit, Forest Forward, to over in 2017 unveiling a $75M plan to revitalize the theater. It will include a cultural and education center and mixed-income housing.
That S.M. Wright Freeway has been knocked down to become a boulevard which will provide walkable access to the theater’s history.
It is a history that if the walls could talk, they’d declare unity, creativity and opportunity for the future.
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