Peter Johnson

Civil Rights Leader Peter Johnson Excoriates Council for Proposal to Bus Out Homeless

Last week, as they City Council was being briefed on the still very incomplete effort to end chronic homelessness in Dallas, a frustrated Dwaine Caraway proposed a surefire solution: Why not round up the homeless people, stick them on a Greyhound bus, and send them back to where they came from? Most ... More >>

DART Offers Hope to Plan to Employ Job-Hungry Ex-Cons to Recycle Old Tracks

A Billboard Over MLK Boulevard Claims the Civil Rights Leader Was a Republican

Say you're a Republican activist hoping to woo black voters, but you're faced with the inconvenient truth that the opposing party elected the country's first African American president. What do you do? You put the one African American figure who more iconic than Barack Obama on a billboard above his ... More >>

South Dallas Shamrock Kwik Stop Story Ends With TABC Squeezing $1,500 Out of Store Owner

Looks like the Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission may have written the last sordid act in the ugly saga of Thomas Pak and the Shamrock Kwik Stop on Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard. Records released yesterday reveal a settlement last August between Pak and the state alcohol agency by which Pak acce ... More >>

Remembering Thabiti Olatunji, Fighter for Hope and Law in a Crime-Ridden Neighborhood

Should We Celebrate Juneteenth?

I had lunch with Rev. Peter Johnson yesterday. He walked into CT's Real Deal Barbeque in South Dallas, shook my hand, and smiled. "How was your holiday?" he asked me. "Great!" I said. It was. I told him I spoke to my father for about 15 or 20 minutes, and I had even gotten a few texts and congratu ... More >>

Dallas Police Chief David Brown Slams Media Coverage of John Husband Shooting

When 21-year-old John Husband was shot in the back around 5:30 p.m. on Saturday after a traffic stop turned ugly, everyone assumed the worst. Dallas police officer Leland Limbaugh pulled Husband over for not hitting his turn signal as he pulled into the Spring Ridge Apartments at 3600 Folklore Trail ... More >>

More Subsidized Housing is the Last Thing Poor Neighborhoods Need

The Dallas Morning News owes me at least five bucks for all the business I steer their way -- and, believe me, I hate doing it -- but once again they have an op-ed piece in the paper today that's really a must-read for people who care about the city or have any involvement at all with City Hall. I ... More >>

In the South Dallas Kwik Stop Story, Telling the Truth Does Not Make a Reporter an Uncle Tom

Dear Friends Among Dallas Black Activists: Some of you have contacted me to ask me who this Uncle Tom son of a bitch Greg Howard is working for the Observer. One of you --- a guy with a long history of responsible activism -- called me from the picket line at the Shamrock Kwik-Stop on MLK Boulevar ... More >>

How a Battle Over a Korean-Owned Kwik Stop Divided, Then United, South Dallas

Led by a little-known minister, protesters rallied to run a Korean store owner out of business. Then they learned a little more about that minister.

The Race for Texas' New Congressional District Is Going To Be Very Interesting. And Crowded.

Let's just call it: Everyone in town is running for Congress. Okay, not everyone, but the race for the newly-created, much-argued-over Congressional District 33 has gotten very, very crowded, especially on the Democrats' side. Last night we watched as former Dallas city council member -- and may ... More >>

As Shamrock Protests Near An End, Local NAACP President May Be On Her Way Out

Anthony Bond, founder of the Irving chapter of the NAACP, looked at what was happening in South Dallas, at the Diamond Shamrock Kwik Stop on Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard, and decided: Enough's enough. Those protests at the Korean-owned convenience store had to stop, as did calls for its owner Th ... More >>

Michael Sorrell Revived Paul Quinn College (and Almost Died Doing It)

Dallas' only historically black college was on the brink of collapse. Now the students are protesters, the football field is a farm and the president is the star.

The Diamond Shamrock Protest May Be Canceled Due to Lack of Interest. 'Bout Time.

A week ago Monday, two people picketed outside Diamond Shamrock Kwik Stop on Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard. "Don't Stop, Don't Shop," and "They're Using the 'N' Word," their signs read. The day after that, there were three. One snapped my picture for crossing the picket line and entering the stor ... More >>

In South Dallas, the Neighborhood Wants to Buy Out That Shamrock Gas Station's Owner

Photo by Anna Merlan​Schutze broke the story a while back about a group of black people in South Dallas picketing the Diamond Shamrock gas station on Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard. People in the neighborhood claimed the station's Korean owner had called black customers "broke-ass niggers, ... More >>

Ralph Isenberg, Fresh Off His Nice Morning News Profile, Really Wants to Sodomize Me

Mark Graham Ralph Isenberg's security team is totally DTF.​So Ralph Isenberg threatened to fuck me in my ass the other day. Well, that's not the first thing he did. Before that, he shook my hand and told me his name was Ralph Isenberg. And before that, I drove approximately nine minutes to hi ... More >>

Along Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard This Morning, a Parade ... and a Protest

I was out wandering around not far from my house this morning when I was lucky enough to catch a bit of the annual Elite News-sponsored Martin Luther King Day Parade. Hundreds of people turned out to watch, lining the former Forest Avenue for at least a mile. The marchers included the mayor (trailin ... More >>

Price Corruption Probe: You're All Black. Go to Jail?

Do black politicos get harsher treatment in the courts? Let's talk about it.

Live, From Atop Schutze's Head, a Battle Between Races at Local Convenience Store

​Well, I think my hat-cam is going to change my life. Now I can take you along on my daily adventures. You don't especially want to go? Come on. Try it. Be a sport. What I do every day may not be high drama, but it beats working. I go to a lot of stuff that doesn't "make" as a story -- that i ... More >>

DISD Board to Vote (Again) on $40-Mil Tech Deal. You Know, the One It's Being Sued Over?

​In August, we broke the news that Lewisville-based Delcom Group filed a $40 million suit against the Dallas Independent School District over a massive technology contract awarded by the board in May and then yanked, without explanation, a month later. Turned out, according to a subsequent filing, ... More >>

Al Lipscomb, Who Will Be Buried Saturday, Was Good Enough When It Really Counted

​There is no question that Al Lipscomb was ethically challenged. When Wilonsky called me Saturday to tell me Lipscomb had died, I remembered a story the Reverend Peter Johnson told me years ago. Johnson, who had campaigned across the Old South with Martin Luther King Jr., came to Dallas after ... More >>

Should Garbage Collectors Be Allowed to Live?

At City Hall, Democracy Had Nothing To Do With Deferring Love Field Concessions Vote

​An extremely important thing happened at the city council meeting this morning. Nothing happened. I can't tell you how big that is. Angela Hunt won. Mayor Tom Leppert told a packed house that the city council had agreed informally not to vote on the contentious Love Field concessions issue, direc ... More >>

Minority Council Members Blast Mayor For Not Supporting Love Field Contract Extensions

Photos by Sam Merten"Enough is truly enough," said Mayor Pro Tem Dwaine Caraway at today's press conference before explaining why he and Mayor Tom Leppert are on opposite sides.​The Dallas City Council's seven minority council members launched a counterattack this afternoon against Mayor Tom L ... More >>

Methodist Madness|Get With the Times|D'oh!|You'll Never Swim Alone|Mood Music

The Man Who Would Be King

Freddy Haynes seemed a shoo-in to lead the NAACP. Then Obama's ex-pastor came to town.

The Dwaine Caraway Show

Starring that new breed of politician who wants to root out your crack houses, close down your whorehouses and pull up your pants

King for a Day, And Then Some

Looking on the Bright Side

Isenberg, Back from China, Now Taking on "Child Prisons"

He Said, She Said and Nobody Said a Damned Thing

She Can't Overcome

Southern Hospitality

Surprised that Dallas' massive immigration rally went so well? Then you must be a Yankee.

Unfit to Print

A vicious fight between John Wiley Price and a small black-owned newspaper reopens ancient wounds in southern Dallas

This Teardown Town

South Dallas' history is in danger of being demolished, so why are so few protecting it?

Die, Poor People, Die!

Who's in the right about Dallas' charity hospital?

That Reminds Me

Documentary focuses on lesbian hipster Frances Faye

The plantation burns

Al Lipscomb is on trial for bribery. The real charge is "traitor."

Saint Al

Will he die in prison for the sins of the plantation?

City Hall's Slam-Dunk Gang

Quick--someone take a pulse. The Dallas City Council hasn't peeped in months. And John Ware and Ron Kirk are looking awfully well-fed.

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