Oak Cliff is an area of

Dallas, Texas Dallas () is a city in the U.S. state of Texas and the most populous city in the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex, the List of Texas metropolitan areas, most populous metropolitan area in Texas and the Metropolitan statistical area, fourth-most ...

, United States that was formerly a separate town in Dallas County; established in 1887 and annexed by Dallas in 1903, Oak Cliff has retained a distinct neighborhood identity as one of Dallas' older established neighborhoods. Lake_Cliff_Tower_2

Oak Cliff has neighborhoods dating to the turn-of-the-20th century and mid-20th century, as well as many parks, and is adjacent to the

central business district A central business district (CBD) is the Commerce, commercial and business center of a city. It contains commercial space and offices, and in larger cities will often be described as a financial district. Geographically, it often coincides wit ...

downtown Dallas Downtown Dallas is the central business district (CBD) of Dallas, Texas, United States, located in the geographic center of the city. It is the second-largest business district in the state of Texas. The area termed "Downtown" has traditionally ...

. The boundaries of Oak Cliff are roughly

Interstate 30 Interstate 30 (I-30) is a major Interstate Highway in the southern states of Texas and Arkansas in the United States. I-30 travels 366.76 miles from Interstate 20, I-20 west of Fort Worth, Texas, northeast via Dallas, and Texarkana, Texas ...

on the north, Loop 12 on the west, Interstate 35E on the east, the Trinity River on the northeast and

Interstate 20 Interstate 20 (I‑20) is a major east–west Interstate Highway in the Southern United States. I-20 runs beginning at an interchange with I-10 in Reeves County, Texas, and ending at an interchange with I-95 in Florence, South Carolina. B ...

on the south. There are no officially recognized or universally accepted boundaries for what constitutes Oak Cliff.

History

Oak Cliff was founded in 1887, when John S. Armstrong and Thomas L. Marsalis bought a farm of on the west side of the Trinity River for $8,000. The farm was subdivided into blocks, and the

plat In the United States, a plat ( or ) (plan) is a cadastral map, drawn to scale, showing the divisions of a piece of land. United States General Land Office surveyors drafted township plats of Public Lands Survey System, Public Lands Surveys to ...

of the new town made. Armstrong and Marsalis began to develop the land into an elite residential area, which proved to be a success by the end of 1887, with sales surpassing $60,000. After a disagreement between the partners, Marsalis secured complete control over Oak Cliff's development. Armstrong would go on to create his own elite residential development on the north side of Dallas, known as Highland Park. According to the first plat filed, the original township of Oak Cliff extended as far north as First Street, later named Colorado Boulevard just north of Lake Cliff, then known as Spring Lake, and as far south as a pavilion below Thirteenth Street. It was bounded on the east by Miller Street, later named Cliff Street, and on the west by Beckley Avenue. Jefferson Boulevard was the route of a steam railroad, and the principal north and south thoroughfare was Marsalis Avenue, then called Grand Street. On November 1, 1887, $23,000 worth of lots were sold in the newly opened Marsalis Addition (Oak Cliff) before noon, and on the following day, ninety-one lots were sold for $38,113. Figures published later in November gave the new suburb a population of 500. Marsalis developed the Oak Cliff Elevated Railway to provide the first transportation link to his new development, using a small shuttle train pulled by a "dummy" engine. The transportation system was modeled on one in the city of New York and was promoted as "the first elevated railway in the South". The railroad ran special trains to Oak Cliff Park the home ground of the Dallas Hams. In reality, the railroad operated at ground level almost its entire course down Jefferson Boulevard and towards Lake Cliff; it only became slightly elevated as it crossed the Trinity River. This steam railway was continued for many years for commuters and pleasure seekers. Marsalis began two other development projects with the intent to promote Oak Cliff as a vacation resort. One was Oak Cliff Park, later called Marsalis Park and Zoo, a park that included a two-mile (3 km)-long lake and a 2,000-seat pavilion in which dances and operas were held. Another was the Park Hotel, modeled after the Hotel del Coronado in San Diego, which included several mineral baths fed by

artesian well An artesian well is a well that brings groundwater to the surface without pumping because it is under pressure within a body of rock or sediment known as an aquifer. When trapped water in an aquifer is surrounded by layers of Permeability (ea ...

s. Oak Cliff incorporated in 1890 with a population of 2,470, and secured a post office which operated until 1896. The community had four grocery stores, two meat markets, a hardware store, and a feed store. Businesses included the Texas Paper Mills Company (later Fleming and Sons), the Oak Cliff Planing Mill, the Oak Cliff Artesian Well Company, Patton's Medicinal Laboratories, and the Oak Cliff Ice and Refrigeration Company. A number of new elite residential areas developed by the Dallas Land and Loan Company had pushed the community's boundaries westward to Willomet Street. Oak Cliff's first mayor was Hugh Ewing. In 1891 the community's first newspaper, the Oak Cliff Sunday Weekly, was published by F. N. Oliver. Over the next three years Oak Cliff's development continued, but, during the depression of 1893, the demand for vacation resorts decreased, and the community's growth stagnated, forcing Marsalis into bankruptcy. Consequently, the Park Hotel was converted into the Oak Cliff College for Young Ladies. Another educational institution, the Patton Seminary, was established two years later by Dr. Edward G. Patton. By 1900 Oak Cliff was already no longer an elite residential and vacation community. Many of the lots once owned by the Dallas Land and Loan Company were subdivided by the Dallas and Oak Cliff Real Estate Company and sold to the middle and working classes, a trend which lasted well into the early 1900s. The census of 1900 reported Oak Cliff's population as 3,640. In 1902, an interurban electric streetcar line controlled by the

Northern Texas Traction Company The Northern Texas Traction Company was a subsidiary of Stone & Webster that operated the streetcar system and interurban lines in Fort Worth, Texas. The Northern Texas Traction Company began with the purchase of the City Railway of Fort Worth ...

, was constructed passing through Oak Cliff, and connected Dallas to Fort Worth. This line discontinued service in the late 1930s. Smaller residential streetcar service ran throughout Oak Cliff's neighborhoods, spanning over . Known as a

streetcar suburb A streetcar suburb is a residential community whose growth and development was strongly shaped by the use of streetcar lines as a primary means of transportation. Such suburbs developed in the United States in the years before the automobile, when ...

, Oak Cliff's characteristic twists and turns are largely due to the area's topography, and the paths and turnabouts created by the streetcar service. Residential streetcar service ended in January 1956. Oak Cliff was annexed by Dallas in 1903, after numerous attempts beginning in 1900. The proposal had met with little success, until the community's depressed economy produced a vote in favor of annexation by eighteen votes. In April 1908, the Trinity River flooded its banks, rising to a height of by April 21; rains continued into May, finally raising the river's height to . The only bridge remaining that connected Oak Cliff with Dallas after the flood was the Zang Boulevard Turnpike, an earthen fill with a single steel span across the river channel, slightly to the north of the present

Houston Street Viaduct The Houston Street Viaduct (formerly the Dallas-Oak Cliff Viaduct) is a viaduct in Dallas, Texas, that carries Houston Street across the Trinity River, connecting Downtown Dallas and Oak Cliff. Designed by Ira G. Hedrick, it was built in 1911 ...

. About this time, George B. Dealey, publisher of the Morning News, returned from a trip to Kansas City with the idea of securing for Dallas an intracity causeway similar to the one there. From his proposal sprang the Houston Street Viaduct (originally named the Oak Cliff Viaduct), begun October 24, 1910, and opened to traffic February 22, 1912, acclaimed as the longest concrete bridge in the world. (This latter designation was later disputed as a publicity stunt.) In 1909, a disastrous fire occurred in Oak Cliff, consuming fourteen blocks of residences, including the Briggs Sanitorium. In April 1921, the

Ku Klux Klan The Ku Klux Klan (), commonly shortened to KKK or Klan, is an American Protestant-led Christian terrorism, Christian extremist, white supremacist, Right-wing terrorism, far-right hate group. It was founded in 1865 during Reconstruction era, ...

declared a chapter within Dallas, making themselves known by not only beating and branding a local black hotel elevator operator, but by also parading in downtown Dallas with nearly 800 hooded Klansmen in attendance. The Dallas chapter, known as “Klavern 66”, moved its meeting hall into Oak Cliff due to a large increase in members shortly after being announced. Klavern 66 was able to spread their influence by producing their own newspaper, ''Texas 100% American'', which was projected to circulate approximately 18,000 copies. In March 1922, another well-known

beating occurred, this time in Oak Cliff, against a tailor named W. J. Gilbert, as reported by the

Fort Worth Star-Telegram The ''Fort Worth Star-Telegram'' is an American daily newspaper serving Fort Worth and Tarrant County, the western half of the North Texas area known as the Metroplex. It is owned by The McClatchy Company. History In May 1905, Amon G. Car ...

. The

Great Depression The Great Depression was a severe global economic downturn from 1929 to 1939. The period was characterized by high rates of unemployment and poverty, drastic reductions in industrial production and international trade, and widespread bank and ...

caused Dallas’ economy to suffer, resulting in the Oak Cliff's

black community Black is a racial classification of people, usually a political and skin color-based category for specific populations with a mid- to dark brown complexion. Not all people considered "black" have dark skin and often additional phenotypical ch ...

contributing to approximately one-half of the city's unemployment population. As black people were known to be considered first for layoffs, a need for low-income housing quickly rose. As a result, 86% of Oak Cliff's black population was forced into inhabiting sub-standard housing, commonly located on what was considered as the most undesirable and unlivable parts of Dallas. Violence broke out in Oak Cliff between its black and white citizens over the issue at hand. The Dallas mayor at the time,

Woodall Rodgers James Woodall Rodgers (May 11, 1890 – July 6, 1961) was an American attorney, businessman, and mayor of Dallas, Texas. Rogers was born in New Market, Alabama. He received his B.A. degree from Vanderbilt University in 1912 and his LL.B. f ...

, was documented as criticizing Oak Cliff's black community for inciting the violence and not being accepting of their residential segregation. On April 2, 1957, a

tornado A tornado is a violently rotating column of air that is in contact with the surface of Earth and a cumulonimbus cloud or, in rare cases, the base of a cumulus cloud. It is often referred to as a twister, whirlwind or cyclone, although the ...

ripped through Oak Cliff as part of the Early-April 1957 tornado outbreak sequence, killing 10 people and causing more than $1 million in damages.

Politics

Dallas City Council

Oak Cliff is represented by four members of the Dallas City Council, out of a total of fourteen council members for the city as a whole. Using the boundaries described above, two of the council districts fall completely in Oak Cliff (Districts 1 and 4), while two others partially represent Oak Cliff (Districts 3 and 8). :* District 1: Chad West :* District 3: Zarin Gracey :* District 4: Carolyn King Arnold :* District 8: Tennell Atkins

Dallas County Commissioners Court

Oak Cliff is represented by two members of the Dallas County Commissioners Court. Both of these commissioners represent other areas of Dallas County, but Oak Cliff is within their district boundaries. :* District 1: Dr. Elba Garcia :* District 3: John Wiley Price

Texas House of Representatives

Oak Cliff is represented by several members of the Texas Legislature. All of the representatives listed below represent portions of Oak Cliff. :* House District 100: Rep. Venton Jones :* House District 103: Rep. Rafael Anchia :* House District 104: Rep. Jessica Gonzalez :* House District 110: Rep. Toni Rose :* House District 111: Rep. Yvonne Davis

Texas Senate

Oak Cliff is represented by two members of the Texas Senate. Senator Royce West represents most of Oak Cliff while a portion of west Oak Cliff is represented by Senator Nathan Johnson. :* Senate District 16: Rep. Nathan Johnson :* Senate District 23: Sen. Royce West

Neighborhoods

* Arcadia Park * Beckley Club Estates *Beverly Hills * Bishop Arts District *Brentwood *Brettonwoods *Bronx Park *Brooklyn Heights *Carver Heights *

Cedar Haven Cedar Haven was a historic Greek Revival architecture, Greek Revival Plantation house in the Southern United States, plantation house located near Faunsdale, Alabama, Faunsdale, Alabama. It was built in 1850 by Phillip J. Weaver. Weaver was a p ...

*Cedar Oaks *Crestwood *Dells District *Druid Hills * Elmwood *El Tivoli Place *Encinos Park *Five Mile (Dallas) *Glen Oaks (Dallas) * Hampton Hills *Hideaway Valley *Kernwood *Kessler Circle *Kessler Highlands * Kessler Park * Kessler Plaza, Dallas *Kiest - Polk *Kiest Square *Kiestwood *Kimball Estates * Kings Highway Conservation District * Kidd Springs * Lake Cliff *Las Haciendas (Marion dr)(Dallas) *Las Villas (Dallas) *Legendary Hollow *Los Encinos *Loupot Heights * L.O. Daniel *Mountain Creek (Dallas) * North Bishop Avenue Commercial Historic District *North Cliff *Oakland Terrace *Oakland Hills, Woodtown *Oak Park Estates *Oak Tree Colony (The Countrytown) * Pinnacle Park * Polk Terrace * Ravinia Heights *Rolandale * Ruthmeade Place *Skyline Heights *Southern Hills * Stevens Park Estates * Stevens Park Village *Summit Lawn *Sunset Crest *Sunset Hills (Dallas) * Tenth Street Historic District * The Bottoms *The States (Dallas) *Timbergrove Circle(Kessler Park Dallas) * Trinity Heights *Twin Oaks *Vista Real *Western Park *Westmount (Dallas) *Wheatland Estates * Winnetka Heights * Wynnewood In addition, the Oak Cliff area encompasses

Cockrell Hill Cockrell Hill is a city in Dallas County, Texas, United States. The population was 4,193 at the 2010 census, and 3,815 in 2020. It is completely surrounded by the city of Dallas. History Cockrell Hill was established by the pioneer Brentwoo ...

, a separate municipality which is an

enclave An enclave is a territory that is entirely surrounded by the territory of only one other state or entity. An enclave can be an independent territory or part of a larger one. Enclaves may also exist within territorial waters. ''Enclave'' is so ...

of Dallas. {{

Transportation

Light rail

DART Dart or DART may refer to: Arts, entertainment and media * Dart, the equipment in the game of darts * Dart (comics), an Image Comics superhero * Dart, a character from ''G.I. Joe'' * Dart, a ''Thomas & Friends'' railway engine character * Dart ...

** Dallas Zoo Station ** Tyler/Vernon Station ** Hampton Station ** Westmoreland Station

Streetcar

The

Dallas Streetcar The Dallas Streetcar is a modern streetcar line in Dallas, Texas. It is owned by the city of Dallas and operated by Dallas Area Rapid Transit, which also operates Dallas's DART light rail system. Construction on the line began in May 2013,'' T ...

is a {{convert, 1.6, mi, km, adj=on modern-streetcar line connecting Oak Cliff with downtown Dallas. It opened in April 2015, and extensions are planned.{{cite news , last = Appleton , first = Roy , title = Downtown-Oak Cliff streetcar debuts with speeches, curious riders , url = http://www.dallasnews.com/news/community-news/best-southwest/headlines/20150413-downtown-oak-cliff-streetcar-debuts-with-speeches-curious-riders.ece , access-date = April 15, 2015 , newspaper =

The Dallas Morning News ''The Dallas Morning News'' is a daily newspaper serving the Dallas–Fort Worth area of Texas, with an average print circulation in 2022 of 65,369. It was founded on October 1, 1885, by Alfred Horatio Belo as a satellite publication of the ' ...

, date = April 14, 2015 , page = 1B , archive-date = August 19, 2016 , archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20160819230647/http://www.dallasnews.com/news/community-news/best-southwest/headlines/20150413-downtown-oak-cliff-streetcar-debuts-with-speeches-curious-riders.ece , url-status = dead

Highways

* Interstate 35E * U.S. Highway 67

Education

School desegregation

In apprehension to the Brown vs. Board of Education Supreme Court ruling in 1954, the city of Dallas resisted desegregating their schools with the help of federal judges such as Judge William H. Atwell, the Chief Judge of the

United States District Court for the Northern District of Texas The United States District Court for the Northern District of Texas (in case citations, N.D. Tex.) is a United States district court. Its first judge, Andrew Phelps McCormick, was appointed to the court on April 10, 1879. The court convenes in ...

.{{cite journal , last1 = Beck , first1 = William W. , last2 = Linden , first2 = Glenn M. , last3 = Siegel , first3 = Michael E. , title = Identifying School Desegregation Leadership Styles , journal = The Journal of Negro Education , date = 1980 , volume = 49 , issue = 2 , pages = 115–133 , doi = 10.2307/2294961 , issn = 0022-2984 , jstor = 2294961 To combat the inevitability of desegregation of schools, Dallas, in 1961, initiated a "Stairstep Plan". The proposed plan stated that all DISD schools would begin desegregation one grade level per year, beginning with the first grade. DISD declared all of their schools desegregated in 1967, which was later found to be inherently false. In July 1971, it was discovered that out of the total 180 DISD schools, 159 schools met the criteria to be classified as a one-race school (90% of the student population being either Black, Mexican American or Anglo). At the conclusion of the case in August 1971, Judge William M. Taylor of the

, ruled in favor of a majority-to-minority transfer program. The program stated that all DISD students who attended schools where their race made up the majority of the student population would integrate into schools where their race was a minority by offering free transportation by bus.{{cite book , last1 = Hanson , first1 = Royce , title = Civic Culture and Urban Change: Governing Dallas , date = 2003 , publisher = Wayne State University Press , location = Baltimore, Maryland , isbn = 0814337473 , page = 430 For the next few decades Oak Cliff schools, along with those in South Dallas, became the focus of a long-running and bitter court battle over

desegregation Racial integration, or simply integration, includes desegregation (the process of ending systematic racial segregation), leveling barriers to association, creating equal opportunity regardless of race, and the development of a culture that draws ...

, one overseen by federal judge

Barefoot Sanders Harold Barefoot Sanders Jr. (February 5, 1925 – September 21, 2008) was an American attorney, politician, and jurist who served as a United States district judge of the United States District Court for the Northern District of Texas and counsel ...

. All of DISD's schools were officially declared desegregated by the city in 2003.

Public

The

Dallas Independent School District The Dallas Independent School District (Dallas ISD or DISD) is a school district based in Dallas, Texas, United States. It operates schools in much of Dallas County, Texas, Dallas County and is the second-largest school district in Texas and t ...

operates district public schools. Zoned high schools within the Oak Cliff area:{{Clarify, date=January 2010{{Citation needed, date=January 2010 * W.H. Adamson High School - 4A - ''Western'' (The replacement campus opened in 2012){{Cite web , url = http://www.dallasisd.org/bond2008/pdf/NewSchoolsNames.pdf , title = New Schools-2008 Bond Program , archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20100509063953/http://www.dallasisd.org/bond2008/pdf/NewSchoolsNames.pdf , archive-date = May 9, 2010 , website =

, access-date = January 8, 2010 , url-status = dead * Sunset High School - 5A{{Citation needed, date=January 2010 * Franklin D. Roosevelt High School - 4A - ''eastern''{{Citation needed, date=January 2010 *

South Oak Cliff High School South Oak Cliff High School (colloquially referred to as SOC, pronounced "sock") is a public secondary school located in the Oak Cliff area of Dallas, Texas, United States. South Oak Cliff High School enrolls students in grades 9- 12 and is a pa ...

- 5A - ''southern''{{Citation needed, date=January 2010 * David W. Carter High School - 5A{{Citation needed, date=January 2010 *

Justin F. Kimball High School Justin F. Kimball High School is a Public school (government funded), public secondary school in the Oak Cliff area of Dallas, Texas, United States. It enrolls students in grades 9–12, and is a part of the Dallas Independent School District. T ...

- 4A{{Citation needed, date=January 2010 *

Moisés E. Molina High School Moisés E. Molina High School is a public secondary school in the Oak Cliff area of Dallas, Texas (USA). Molina High School is part of the Dallas Independent School District and serves students from parts of southwestern Dallas and majority of Co ...

- 5A{{Citation needed, date=January 2010 * A.W Brown Fellowship Leadership Academy Charter School Optional high schools within the Oak Cliff area: * New Tech High School {{citation needed, date=September 2011 *

Barack Obama Male Leadership Academy Barack Obama Male Leadership Academy at A. Maceo Smith (BOMLA) is a magnet secondary school for boys located in the Oak Cliff area of Dallas, Texas. It is a part of the Dallas Independent School District. After the Irma Lerma Rangel Young Women' ...

(all male){{Cite news , last = Williams , first = Shawn P. , url = http://www.dallassouthnews.org/2011/03/15/disds-barack-obama-male-leadership-academy-says-yes-we-can/ , title = DISD's Barack Obama Male Leadership Academy says "Yes We Can" , archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20111113192923/http://www.dallassouthnews.org/2011/03/15/disds-barack-obama-male-leadership-academy-says-yes-we-can/ , archive-date = November 13, 2011 , newspaper = Dallas South News , date = March 15, 2011 , access-date = September 2, 2011 , url-status = dead * Yvonne A. Ewell Townview Magnet Center{{Citation needed, date=January 2010 * Dr. Frederick D. Haynes III Global Preparatory Academy at Paul Quinn College *

Kathlyn Joy Gilliam Collegiate Academy Kathlyn Joy Gilliam Collegiate Academy is an advanced high school focusing on college readiness and is located on the grounds of the University of North Texas at Dallas in southern Dallas, Texas. It is a part of the Dallas Independent School Distr ...

In 2011 the district closed Maynard Jackson Middle School. Prior to summer 2011 the community often complained about poor conditions at the school. DISD rezoned the students to Kennedy Curry Middle School in southern

Dallas Dallas () is a city in the U.S. state of Texas and the most populous city in the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex, the List of Texas metropolitan areas, most populous metropolitan area in Texas and the Metropolitan statistical area, fourth-most ...

. Zan Wesley Holmes Jr. Middle School, which opened in 2012, is in Oak Cliff. Rosemont Elementary School is located in North Oak Cliff. In 2015 of ''

'' wrote that it had "strong academics, passionate students and devoted parents" and that it "is considered a neighborhood gem in North Oak Cliff". The parents stated that principal Anna Brining had worked to make the school strong; in 2015 DISD notified Brining that her contract will not be renewed. In addition,

Life School Life School is a charter school operator headquartered in Red Oak, Texas. Life School was chartered in the state of Texas in 1998 and has campuses in Dallas-Fort Worth, Cedar Hill, Carrollton, Lancaster, Oak Cliff, Red Oak, Waxahachie, and ...

, a state charter school operator, has the K-12 Oak Cliff campus.

Private

High schools

* Bishop Dunne Catholic School - TAPPS *Tyler Street Christian Academy - TAPPS

Post-secondary

University of North Texas at Dallas The University of North Texas at Dallas (UNT Dallas) is a public university in Dallas, Texas, United States. Part of the University of North Texas System, the university was founded in 2000 and became an independent institution in 2010. Servi ...

Paul Quinn College Paul Quinn College (PQC) is a private historically black Methodist college in Dallas, Texas. The college is affiliated with the African Methodist Episcopal Church (AME). It is the oldest historically black college west of the Mississippi River ...

Christ for the Nations Institute Christ for the Nations Institute (CFNI) is an interdenominational charismatic Bible college based in Dallas, Texas, and serves as the educational cornerstone of Christ for the Nations, Inc. It was established in July 1970 by James Gordon Lindsay ...

* Mountain View College (part of the Dallas County Community College system)

In popular culture

Oak Cliff has been home to a long list of musicians. When

T-Bone Walker Aaron Thibeaux "T-Bone" Walker (May 28, 1910 – March 16, 1975) was an American blues musician, composer, songwriter and bandleader, who was a pioneer and innovator of the jump blues, West Coast blues, and electric blues sounds. In 2018 ''R ...

made his debut with Columbia in 1929, he lived in Oak Cliff, and recorded as Oak Cliff T-Bone.

Edie Brickell Edie Arlisa Brickell (born March 10, 1966) is an American singer-songwriter widely known for 1988's ''Shooting Rubberbands at the Stars'', the debut album by Edie Brickell & New Bohemians, which went to No. 4 on the ''Billboard'' albums chart. ...

's second album included a song about life in Oak Cliff titled "Oak Cliff Bra". Other musicians from Oak Cliff include

Michael Martin Murphey Michael Martin Murphey (born March 14, 1945) is an American singer-songwriter. He was one of the founding artists of progressive country. A multiple Grammy nominee, Murphey has six gold albums, including ''Cowboy Songs (Michael Martin Murphey alb ...

, rap artist DCT

Yella Beezy Markies Deandre Conway (born October 22, 1991), better known by the stage name Yella Beezy, is an American rapper from Dallas, Texas. He is best known for his 2017 single " That's On Me", which entered the ''Billboard'' Hot 100 and received gol ...

Stevie Ray Vaughan Stephen Ray Vaughan (also known as SRV; October 3, 1954 – August 27, 1990) was an American musician, best known as the guitarist and frontman of the blues rock trio Stevie Ray Vaughan and Double Trouble (band), Double Trouble. Although his ma ...

, B. W. Stevenson,

The D.O.C. Tracy Lynn Curry (born June 10, 1968), better known by his stage name the D.O.C., is an American rapper, songwriter, and record producer. Along with his solo career, he was a member of the Southern hip hop group Fila Fresh Crew, and later co-wr ...

Ray Wylie Hubbard Ray Wylie Hubbard (born November 13, 1946) is an American singer and songwriter. Early life Hubbard was born on November 13, 1946, in Soper, Oklahoma. His family moved to Oak Cliff in southwest Dallas, Texas, in 1954. He attended W. ...

and

Jimmie Vaughan Jimmie Lawrence Vaughan Jr. (born March 20, 1951) is an American blues rock guitarist and singer based in Austin, Texas. He is the older brother of the Texas blues guitarist Stevie Ray Vaughan. He was a founding member of The Fabulous Thunder ...

. Actors

Yvonne Craig Yvonne Joyce Craig (May 16, 1937 – August 17, 2015) was an American actress who is best known for her role as Barbara Gordon/Batgirl in the 1960s television series ''Batman (TV series), Batman''. Other notable roles in her career include Dorot ...

(television's first Batgirl) and

Stephen Tobolowsky Stephen Harold Tobolowsky (born May 30, 1951) is an American character actor and writer. He is known for film roles such as insurance agent Ned Ryerson in ''Groundhog Day'' and amnesiac Sammy Jankis in '' Memento'', as well as such television ch ...

lived in Oak Cliff. Oak Cliff is home to the Sour Grapes art collective, founded by Carlos Donjuan, with his brothers Arturo and Miguel in 2000. The collective has murals throughout the Dallas area.{{Cite web, last=Weeks, first=Jerome, date=8 September 2016, title=Painting Walls, Not Building Them: Carlos Donjuan moved from graffiti art to murals to gallery paintings to making masks, url=https://artandseek.org/profiles/carlos-donjuan/, website=Art & Seek Former NBA Player and now Hall of Famer

Dennis Rodman Dennis Keith Rodman (born May 13, 1961) is an American former professional basketball player. Renowned for his defensive and rebounding abilities, his biography on the official NBA website states that he is "arguably the best rebounding forw ...

grew up in Oak Cliff.

Omar Gonzalez Omar Alejandro Gonzalez (born October 11, 1988) is an American professional soccer player who plays as a center-back for Major League Soccer club Chicago Fire. A college soccer player for the Maryland Terrapins, he joined the LA Galaxy in t ...

, a defender for

Toronto Toronto ( , locally pronounced or ) is the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, most populous city in Canada. It is the capital city of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Ontario. With a p ...

Major League Soccer Major League Soccer (MLS) is a professional Association football, soccer league in North America and the highest level of the United States soccer league system. It comprises 30 teams, with 27 in the United States and 3 in Canada, and is sanc ...

and the U.S. national team, was born and raised in Oak Cliff. Oak Cliff is the home of the

Texas Theatre The Texas Theatre is a movie theater and Dallas landmark located in the Oak Cliff neighborhood of Dallas, Texas. It gained historical significance on November 22, 1963, as the location of Lee Harvey Oswald's arrest over the suspicion he was the ...

, located in West Jefferson Boulevard, where former resident

Lee Harvey Oswald Lee Harvey Oswald (October 18, 1939 – November 24, 1963) was a U.S. Marine veteran who assassinated John F. Kennedy, the 35th president of the United States, on November 22, 1963. Oswald was placed in juvenile detention at age 12 for truan ...

, the man suspected of killing

U.S. President The president of the United States (POTUS) is the head of state and head of government of the United States. The president directs the Federal government of the United States#Executive branch, executive branch of the Federal government of t ...

John F. Kennedy John Fitzgerald Kennedy (May 29, 1917 – November 22, 1963), also known as JFK, was the 35th president of the United States, serving from 1961 until his assassination in 1963. He was the first Roman Catholic and youngest person elected p ...

and shooting

Dallas Police The Dallas Police Department, established in 1881, is the principal law enforcement agency serving the city of Dallas, Texas. Organization The department is headed by a chief of police who is appointed by the city manager who, in turn, is hir ...

officer

JD Tippit J. D. Tippit (September 18, 1924 – November 22, 1963) was an American World War II U.S. Army veteran and Bronze Star recipient, who was a police officer with the Dallas Police Department for 11 years. About 45 minutes after the assassina ...

at 10th and Patton Streets, was arrested. The theater has appeared in many books and movies on the Kennedy assassination, including

Oliver Stone William Oliver Stone (born ) is an American filmmaker. Stone is an acclaimed director, tackling subjects ranging from the Vietnam War and American politics to musical film, musical Biographical film, biopics and Crime film, crime dramas. He has ...

's 1991 film, ''

JFK John Fitzgerald Kennedy (May 29, 1917 – November 22, 1963), also known as JFK, was the 35th president of the United States, serving from 1961 until Assassination of John F. Kennedy, his assassination in 1963. He was the first Catholic Chur ...

''. On November 22, 1963, Warren "Butch" Burroughs, who ran the concession stand at the theatre, said that Oswald came into the theater between 1:00 and 1:07 pm; he also claimed he sold Oswald popcorn at 1:15 p.m. Julia Postal later said that Burroughs initially told her the same thing although he later denied this. Theatre patron, Jack Davis, also corroborated Burroughs' time, claiming he observed Oswald in the theatre prior to 1:20 pm. Oak Cliff is the setting of ''City Limit'', the novel by Lantzee Miller is a coming-of-age story and metaphorical portrait of the beginning of Oak Cliff's recent rebirth and self redefinition.{{cite news , last = Fisher , first = Georgia , title = Writer Sets Novel in Oak Cliff , newspaper = Oak Cliff People , date = June 14, 2013

References

{{Reflist

External links

{{Commons category, Oak Cliff {{Wikivoyage, Dallas/Oak Cliff, Oak Cliff * {{Handbook of Texas, id=hvo43, name=Oak Cliff
Map of North Oak Cliff Neighborhoods
{{Dallas Neighborhoods, selected=oakcliff {{Dallas {{Dallas County, Texas {{Authority control Former cities in Texas Populated places established in 1886