The Oral History of Margaret Benson

Tucked away in a shopping center beside the Pan-African Bookstore, not far from South Oak Cliff High School, is a green neon sign that says For Oak Cliff. It’s the logo of a community center, founded and lead by Taylor Toynes. Taylor’s a partner here at Commit and a lifelong member of the community. And last month, he was kind enough to introduce me to his grandmother, who moved to this neighborhood in 1944, and ran a store with her husband in the same shopping center for over thirty years. I wanted to talk to Margaret Benson to hear what it was like to attend a Dallas high school in the years immediately following Brown vs. Board of Education. A few of the answers to those specific questions were invaluable to an upcoming episode of our podcast, the Miseducation of Dallas County. But Mrs. Benson’s story extends far beyond that one moment, and in the hour we spent together she spoke on education, segregation, social life, and the history of her neighborhood, the historic Tenth Street district, or as she calls it, the Hills.