Downtown Dallas keeps moving but inside AT&T headquarters on South Akard Street is an invitation to slow down.
An experience awaits, a story of America's buried past, a story about the journey Rodney Hawkins took to find his ancestors in Old Gillion Cemetery in East Texas, restore it and the family history it revealed.
"That's part of the story we're telling here in The Mount Experience is how we were able to map that my ancestor back in 1841, although was sold into slavery, started my family journey here. And through all the generations, then came me and I'm sitting here with you today telling this story," Hawkins said.
Hawkins grew up in Plano, went off to college and spent a decade as a network journalist but Texas, East Texas kept calling him back.
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"One of the whys was, 'Why does our family have land, 150 acres?," Hawkins said. "We still own a lot of property in East Texas; Nacogdoches, one of the oldest towns in Texas, and in Marshall. And as African-Americans, that's very unique. So, I wanted to know more about history."
His question took him to his 106-year-old great-grandmother and a conversation, an interview about family history. She died three months later but part of their exchange is shared in Hawkins' exhibit.
"When she passed away, I realized that was a very unique experience for me to have. I was 31 at the time and had 45 minutes of an interview with my great-grandmother. I can hear her voice. I can share this with all my family members," he said. "And, it was an emotional experience after she passed away. "
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Her death didn't stop his questions but stoked his curiosity to learn more.
"I caught the bug then and was like, 'I don't want any more of my elders to pass away before I can understand their story and where they came from," he said, "So I started asking more and more questions after that, really trying to understand that first question which was: How did we have all this property?"
His elders pointed him to a nearly 200-year-old cemetery buried in the Pineywoods of East Texas. He rallied relatives to help restore it and as debris was cleared, the cemetery became a living archive.
Gravestones mapped a timeline and revealed family connections.
Researchers at Stephen F. Austin State University and the Lone Star Slavery Project then dug into archives to find Hawkins' ancestors, enslaved family members like Richard Curl and chapters in his family story that began years before Texas was founded in 1845.
"We were able to trace back that our family had been in Texas since 1841. That was one of those things that I'm still, even as I say this to this day, is incredible. Because as you know, Texas was founded a few years after that," he said. "And in the same sort of books that he was considered property, next iterations of it, he was buying land. He was buying cattle. And some of that is why we still own some of the property that we do to this day."
Hawkins had found his answer. Property bought by his ancestors nearly 200 years ago had stayed in the family. From the investment in land, more trailblazers followed.
"To think that generations later that he, Richard Curl was his name, Richard Curl, now has multiple college graduates from his family, multiple doctors, multiple lawyers. All these different professionals and people in the world that are doing so much, that saying,' I am my ancestor's wildest dream, really came alive," Hawkins said. "A lot of the stories I've heard from my own family are stories of entrepreneurship and how we spent years as farmers, as sharecroppers then we have some of the first Black college graduates in the state of Texas at different schools. And I'm like, 'We are trailblazers. I know I can be a trailblazer, too'. And so empowerment is all this has brought me."
In his immersive exhibit, Hawkins invites people into the East Texas Pineywoods, to his great grandmother's living room where family stories were told; and through a tunnel covered in moss, a gateway to The Mount where videos and pictures document his journey.
"I hope this story and my story and everything you see in this exhibit inspires more people to understand that we're in Black history month and this month is about all the things that African-Americans have done in this country but I also think there are heroes in our own families and in our own journey; to understand who we are and what shaped our families and our communities, to get to the points of how we have this freedom, how we've been able to achieve the things that we have," he said. "And that to me is so invaluable for so many more of us to know. And I hope with this experience, they can."
Hawkins wants others to see what he does - the power in the struggle; the strength that comes with it and the pride that comes with knowing their own stories.
"Finding your history may be painful or shameful for whatever reason but it can also bring you this sense of pride of understanding where you came from," he said. "And with the pride, you will see how much more you will do as a person."
The journey helped Hawkins see more for himself. He started his own business called Tiny Hawk Productions. The company name pays tribute to his granny Leona "Tiny" Hawkins, the first black nursing home administrator to be licensed in the State of Texas.
And, Hawkins now owns some of the very land his family bought decades ago.
"My wife and I just purchased some of that land from my cousins, so we literally have land that is rooted in so much of our ancestry," Hawkins said. "And, I just feel so connected. I feel more American. I feel more Texan."
The Mount Experience: A Story of America's Buried Past is in the lobby of AT&T Headquarters, 208 S. Akard St. in Dallas. Visitors can see it for free through February 21.
