A Great Time to Be Alive - Fort Worth, TX
N 32° 45.091 W 097° 19.755
14S E 656519 N 3624974
A Fort Worth Heritage Trails sign stands at the southwest corner of W 9th and Main Streets in downtown Fort Worth, providing some background about Dr. King's sole visit to Fort Worth back in 1959.
Waymark Code: WM12R1E
Location: Texas, United States
Date Posted: 07/05/2020
Views: 3
The sign has an inset photo of Dr. King and Rosa Parks, and it reads:
On October 22, 1959, The Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., pastor, civil rights leader and president of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) made his only visit to Fort Worth, Texas. Dr. Vada Phillips Felder, local educator, activist, and friend of Dr. King's had invited him to Fort Worth when they both attended a church conference in Nashville. Upon his arrival, Dr. King was greeted by African American community leaders. He also experienced some anger, hate and bomb threats. He stayed upstairs in Vada Felder's home on Stewart Street, and attended a reception at the Bellaire Drive West home of the Revs. Alberta and Harold Lunger, Professor of Social Ethics, Brite College of the Bible (now Brite Divinity School) at Texas Christian University. That evening four hundred people were in attendance when Dr. King spoke at the historic Majestic Theater at 1101 Commerce Street. On that occasion the theater was integrated when African Americans were, for the first time, allowed to enter through the front door and sit in the lower seats.
In 1954 Vada Felder was the first African American to graduate from Brite College of the Bible with a Masters of Religious Education, and a member of Mount Zion Baptist Church for over 50 years. An author and teacher, Vada taught at Fort Worth's James Guinn Elementary School and at Bishop College. She said that Dr. King’s visit "... gave us courage. He taught us that we could stand up and do what was right – and do it in peace".
It was truly a great day to be alive in Fort Worth, Texas.
Sponsored by Dr. Gary & Anne Lacefield
In Memory of Mother Carol Ann Tatum
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If you look up after reading the sign, you'll note the memorial to John F. Kennedy across the street, and behind it, the Hilton Fort Worth, which was the Hotel Texas when JFK spent his last night there in 1963. The Majestic Theater itself was demolished in 1970, while Dr. Felder lived to be 97, passing on in 2008.
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