Dallas

Texas Connects Us: Forgotten All-Black Settlement in Dallas

In the early 1960s an all-black community in Dallas uprooted and left a settlement that their ancestors started in the late 1800's.

It was called Little Egypt, though historians can't say why, definitively.

And still today, questions remain about what happened to the people who lived there.

"Little Egypt was a vibrant black community," said Richland College professor Clive Siegle. "The residents decided that they would sell, and Little Egypt disappeared."

Little Egypt was north of Northwest Highway between Interstate 635 and U.S. Highway 75.

Now it's a commercial development in Lake Highlands.

Today students from Richland College are working to piece together what happened to the estimated 20 families who lived there.

Historians have tracked a few of the initial settlers to McCree Cemetery in Dallas. It's less than two miles away from the old settlement, but through the years McCree has been vandalized and forgotten.

Many headstones are cracked, broken or misplaced.

"Some of them you can't even tell what it has," said one student. "They've been eroded away so you can't really see anything on them."

Still the students are working to piece together what they find, with hopes of uncovering even more clues.

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