Shifting Black Dallas Politics
Tuesday's Dallas Morning News had an interesting article entitled: In Dallas, a new era in black politics . The article highlighted the fact that council districts 4, 5, 7, and 8 will all be up for grabs in the March 2007 election. The terms of Maxine Thornton-Reese, Don Hill, Leo Chaney, and James Fantroy are all about to expire. So change is inevitable; or is it? When I look at the list of candidates who will contend for these council seats next spring, there are a number of familiar names who have made a varying levels of contributions to the political scene in Dallas. Names like Dwaine Caraway, Betty Culbreath, Ron Price, and Mr. Al Lipscomb would not be my idea of change. There are however a number of fresh faces in the running including Eric Wilson who sits on the Dallas City Planning Commission. Mr. Wilson will be vying for the District 8 seat being vacated by James Fantroy. The young black populous in Dallas is awakening, and it is high time. The fact that this awakening coincides with the high number of expiring council terms can only be seen as a plus. Michael Davis who publishes the blog Dallas Progress , wrote a great article entitled Dallas Needs a Revolution at DallasBlog.com. In his article Davis ascerts that generation X is already in the process of consensus building. Since the beginning of this blog I have been contacted by a number of 30 somethings who are ready to up their involvement and increase their contributions. Dallas is searching for its own version of Ft. Worth's Donavan Wheatfall , who was elected as one of the youngest city council members of a major U.S. City. The fact is, Dallas may be on the verge of finding multiple Donavan Wheatfalls' (although there is truly only one Wheatfall, a contemporary of mine at Texas A&M), and I say the more the merrier. The residential projects Dallas has focused on in the last few years cater to young, educated urbanites who want to be close to the action. Right now the action is at City Hall… we'll see how this plays out in November and March.
