Courtesy Friends and Family of Fahim J. Minkah
Audio By Carbonatix
Activists in Dallas have been trying to rename the city’s College Park after a man named Fahim J. Minkah, but their efforts have recently hit a roadblock. Minkah was a former Black Panther and local community organizer who died in 2018.
Yafeuh Balogun and others started advocating to rename College Park in South Oak Cliff for Minkah in September 2022 when they submitted an application for the change with the city. Since they started pushing for the park, the advocates have collected hundreds of signatures in support of the change, mainly from residents of District 8, where the park is located.
They’ve also hosted meetings about the change attended by park board staff, according to Balogun. Bo Slaughter, the park board rep for the district, attended one of the meetings. Balogun said Slaughter told him he thought he had the eight votes to pass the proposed name change. In mid-October, Balogun said he was told by parks staff the park board would take up the change at its Dec. 7 meeting. This would have allowed people to come and speak on the proposed change.
If Balogun and others get their way, the park on Highland Woods Drive will soon be called the Fahim J. Minkah Community Park.
However, just a few days ago, Balogun said he was told by park board staff that they wouldn’t be supporting the proposed change and that it wouldn’t be taken up at the upcoming meeting.
“Fahim J. Minkah’s profound impact on the community makes him an exceptionally worthy candidate for the renaming of College Park in his honor.” – Yafeuh Balogun, activist
“The Park and Recreation staff have completed the naming application review for College Park,” Shana Hamilton with the Dallas Park and Recreation Department, told Balogun by email. “Based on our application review process, the application did not meet all the requirements listed in the naming policy to continue the review process. Thank you for working with me during this process.”
Balogun said he was later told over the phone that the application was denied because Minkah had served time for a bank robbery in 1968 and had defaulted on a loan on the skating rink he once owned, Southern Skates. Both of these are true, but Balogun said Minkah was later absolved of his crimes and he noted that the skating rink is still open today.
Slaughter, Hamilton and the city didn’t respond to requests for comment about the proposed name change.
Balogun and others have been influenced by Minkah’s activism. During the late ’80s and early ’90s, Dallas crime reached an all-time high, with more than 500 homicides in 1991. Two years earlier, Minkah organized a group he called the African Men Against Narcotics Drug Fighters (AMAN Drug Fighters for short.)
Minkah told news outlets at the time that the group was meant to combat the lack of police protection in South Oak Cliff. The AMAN Drug Fighters would conduct armed patrols in neighborhoods and apartment complexes that were under siege by drug pushers in the middle of a crack cocaine epidemic. The idea was to find the drug dealers and harass them enough to make them leave.
Balogun and others would later organize their own patrols in an attempt to reduce crime in their neighborhoods.
Minkah also wanted to find ways to provide social services and recreational activities through his nonprofit organization United Front of Dallas. Minkah believed that people in the community, lacking such amenities, were turning to drugs. One of his solutions was to open a roller rink Southern Skates, in 1999. The rink later became owned by the city.
The roller rink is just a four-minute drive from College Park, which Balogun hopes will one day bear Minkah’s name.
Balogun said he and others will keep advocating for the name change. “Fahim J. Minkah’s profound impact on the community makes him an exceptionally worthy candidate for the renaming of College Park in his honor,” Balogun said. “His unwavering dedication to the betterment of children, demonstrated through decades of volunteerism and coaching in track, is undeniable. Moreover, his visionary creation of the enduring safe haven known as Southern Skates has been a beacon of security and joy for the community, remaining open to this day.”
