By the time she died in December 2011, Kathlyn Gilliam's reputation as a pioneering civil rights advocate had been tarnished somewhat by her role, cemented during 23 years on the DISD board of trustees, in establishing the race-obsessed bureaucracy that has long since stopped benefiting the district or its students.
But that wasn't erase the decades of good work she did as a community activist and education reformer who served for decades on the front lines of the battle to integrate Dallas schools. It was that legacy that led Dallas ISD to name a collegiate preparatory academy in her honor and prompted fond remembrances from community leaders and Schutze.
Now, the city could make the South Dallas home she lived in for most of her adult life a historic landmark. It's a modest one-story affair at 3717 Wendelkin Street built in 1921 but well kept. The Landmark Commission will meet on Wednesday to discuss whether to grant the designation.
