Descriptive Summary
Craft, Juanita Jewel,
1902-
Juanita Jewel Shanks Craft
Collection
1939-1983
2ft., 6in.
Center for American History,
The University of Texas at Austin
This collection compiled
by Craft, a Dallas activist, documents NAACP political and social stands,
Dallas Youth Council activities in challenging segregation in the Dallas area
in the 1950s, and social problems in the Dallas area. Included are printed
materials, correspondence, certificates, minute books, speeches, a scrapbook,
and 44 photographs of unidentified NAACP leaders.
English.
Organization
Organized by form of material
Arrangement
Arranged chronologically.
Biographical Note
Juanita Craft (1902-.) is known for her lifelong work in support of
education, civil rights, and the NAACP. Born Juanita Jewel Shanks in Round
Rock, Texas, on February 9, 1902, she grew up in Austin. She attended Prairie
View State Normal and Industrial College, a Black school, where she earned a
certificate in dressmaking and millinery in 1921. She arrived in Dallas in 1925
and worked as a bellmaid at the Adolphus Hotel. In 1935 she joined the NAACP
and became increasingly involved in its civil rights activities. On October 2,
1937, she married Johnny Edward Craft, a union that lasted until has death on
January 17, 1950. They had no children. During World War II, Craft was
appointed Dallas NAACP membership chairman and, in 1946, became Texas field
organizer and Dallas Youth Advisor. In addition, Juanita Craft served in the
Dallas Democratic party for twenty-three years as precinct chairman beginning
in 1952. She was the first Black woman deputized to sell poll tax certificates
in Texas. She supported herself by means of a millinery shop in her home while
working with Dallas young people. Through nonviolent demonstration, the Youth
Council helped to successfully challenge segregation in restaurants, lunch
counters, and theaters, at North Texas State University, and at the Texas State
Fair in 1955. Other programs included the "Back to School" drive in the early
1960s, the Kids Kan Kampaign neighborhood cleanup in 1965, and annual NAACP
convention trips since 1960 in which she accompanied a dozen teenagers. Craft
received Dallas' highest civic honor, the Linz award, in 1967 for
investigating, exposing, and legislating against fraudulent trade schools which
had lured and cheated many unsuspecting young people in Texas. In 1975 at the
age of seventy-two, Juanita Craft won a seat on the Dallas City Council for the
District 6 post and was re-elected in 1977. Many civic and political honors
have been bestowed upon her and three times she was summoned to the White House
to receive recognition awards. The Juanita Jewel Craft Recreation Center and
Park, constructed and christened in 1974 in the heart of Dallas, stands as a
living testament to her lifelong work in aid of Dallas youth and residents.
Instead of wishing to be known as a fighter for Black rights, Juanita Craft
insists that her concern has always been with defending every American's civil
rights.
Scope and Contents
This collection consists mainly of the accumulated pamphlets,
newsletters, and reports issued by the NAACP and other agencies described in
the series and includes a small amount of personal correspondence, papers, and
Dallas NAACP activity documents. One particular item is a Dallas Youth Council
scrapbook, prepared in the late 1950s. The members recorded civil rights
activities with handbills, letters, and articles. The original scrapbook is
mounted on highly acidic paper and has been stored for preservation and a copy
has been placed in these papers. This has also been done for the newspaper
clippings. NAACP printed materials supply information on official activities
during these years, including the official monthly newsletter,
The Crisis. The printed materials from other
agencies follow. If only one or two printed documents exist for an agency, they
are filed with like materials under a revelant subject, i.e., Black history,
Dallas organizations, etc. Some interesting items worth noting are handwritten
reports by Youth Council members concerning segregated amusements at the 1955
Texas State Fair, a voter registration workshop manual, specimens of Texas
NAACP Freedom Bonds, an annual NAACP convention program from World War II with
signed photographs, an issue of Bronze Woman from
1946, and several of Crafts membership certificates from the Dallas Negro
Chamber of Commerce.
Index Terms
Subjects (Persons)
Craft, Juanita, 1902-
--Archives.
Graggs, Charles R.
Subjects (Organizations)
Dallas Negro Chamber of
Commerce.
National Association for the Advancement
of Colored People.
National Association for the Advancement
of Colored People--Photographs.
South Dallas Inter-Racial
Committee.
State Fair of Texas.
Texas State Conference of Branches of the
NAACP.
Subjects
Afro-Americans--Texas--Dallas.
Civil rights--United States.
Demonstrations--Texas--Dallas.
Poll-tax--Texas.
Race relations.
Segregation--Texas--Dallas.
Women--History--Sources.
Crisis
Discrimination
Women-Politics
Places
Dallas, Texas
Cite as
Juanita Jewel Shanks Craft Collection, 1939-1948, Center for American
History, The University of Texas at Austin
Related Material
Additional information available in Juanita Craft Collection, Dallas
Public Library Texas/Dallas History and Archives Division
Inventory
3N321
Personal Papers:
1. Correspondence,
1941-1970
2. Certificates, cards, receipts and programs,
1939-1957
Dallas Youth Council:
3. Newsletter, notes and comments,
1954-1966
4. Scrapbook,
1957-1958
Dallas Chapter, NAACP:
5. Memorandums and manuals,
1954-1958
6. Programs, brochures, bonds, newsletters and press
releases,
1947-1968
7. Charles R. Graggs,
1954-1955
8. Juanita Craft clippings,
1939-1969;
1983
NAACP Printed Materials:
9. Promotion and information pamphlets,
1948-1967;
1982
10. Printed statements and letters,
1951-1967
11. Convention programs and minutes,
1959-1969
12. Convention speeches,
1959-1966
3N322
NAACP Printed Materials:
1. Annual Reports,
1954, 1958, 1963,
1965
2. Reports for...,
1961-1964
3. Annual convention programs,
1944-1954
4. Annual convention programs,
1955-1964
5. Annual convention programs,
1965-1971
6. Newsletters,
1946-1968
3N323
NAACP Printed Materials:
1. The Crisis,
1946-1949
2. The Crisis,
1950-1954
3. The Crisis,
1955-1956
4. The Crisis,
1957
5. The Crisis,
1958-1960
6. The Crisis,
1961
3N324
NAACP Printed Materials:
1. The Crisis,
1962-1963
2. The Crisis,
1964
3. The Crisis,
1965-1966
4. The Crisis,
1967-1968
3N325
NAACP Printed Materials:
1. The Crisis,
1969-1972;
1983
2. Handbills,
1947-1964
Miscellaneous Printed Material:
3. U.S. government publications,
1950-1972
4. United Nations pamphlets,
1966
5. AFL-CIO pamphlets,
1964-1969
6. B'nai B'rith pamphlets,
1958-1959
7. Federal Nigeria,
1958-1959
8. The Workbasket,
1958
9. Dallas organizations pamphlets,
1950-1963
10. Black culture newsletters and magazines,
1946-1972
11. Black studies promotional catalogs and
advertisements,
1946-1972
3N326
Miscellaneous Printed Material:
1. Black history pamphlets,
1941-1966
2. Political pamphlets,
1957-1970
3. Civil Rights pamphlets,
1960-1965
4. Open letters, announcements and mailers,
1944-1969
5. Miscellany
6. Oral History Transcript,
1979
2.325/D22a
Dallas Youth Council scrapbook,
1957-1958
3S7
Photographs of NAACP leaders (unidentified)