The following is an interview with Community Collections Grant (CCG) recipients Tameshia Rudd-Ridge and Jourdan Brunson of kinkofa to celebrate the launch of their online collection, Tenth Street Historic District and The Bottom in Dallas’s Oak Cliff Freedmen’s Town, as well as the April 15, 2026 launch of their Tenth Street Historic District Digital Museum! The collection is based on the 2023 CCG project, If Tenth Street Could Talk, led by Rudd-Ridge and Brunson in collaboration with Remembering Black Dallas. You can also watch their April 2025 presentation on the project here, as part of the American Folklife Center symposium, Documenting Ourselves: Impacts, Outcomes, and Insights from the Community Collections Grant Program.

Congratulations on both your online collection and digital museum! I know they have been years in the making, and it’s incredible that they are now here, for all to engage with and learn from.

Let’s first begin with the newly online Tenth Street Historic District and The Bottom in Dallas’s Oak Cliff Freedmen’s Town collection. For those who may not be familiar with the collection, and the significant work it’s based on, how would you describe it? 

This collection documents the Tenth Street Historic District and The Bottom as part of a larger historic settlement known as Oak Cliff Freedmen’s Town, a community established after Emancipation by formerly enslaved people who acquired land, built institutions, and created a self-sustaining neighborhood in what was then the independent town of Oak Cliff.

It brings together oral histories, photographs, and community-held materials that trace that history from the late nineteenth century to the present. What emerges is not a single story, but a deeply layered one. You see how families established Tenth Street through land ownership, institution building, and chain migration patterns that connected people across generations.

That includes founders Anthony and Hillery Andrew Boswell, whose land purchases, in what is now known as Tenth Street, helped establish the settlement and anchor institutions that continue to shape the community today. Their role is foundational, even when it has not always been fully acknowledged in public narratives or markers.

The collection also reflects that the survival of Tenth Street’s history has been descendant-led. Descendants have been documenting and protecting Tenth Street for decades. Dr. Mamie Abernathy McKnight was instrumental in recording oral histories in the late twentieth century and in securing landmark designation and listing on the National Register of Historic Places. Her work, along with the efforts of residents and organizations that followed, made it possible for Tenth Street’s history to endure.

This project continues that lineage. Documentation was led by kinkofa in collaboration with Remembering Black Dallas and carried out directly with residents and descendants, including leadership from Tameshia Rudd-Ridge, who is also a descendant of Tenth Street. That proximity shaped how the work was conducted and how the history is represented, with community-held materials and lived experience guiding the structure of the collection.

At the same time, the collection makes visible how Tenth Street has been reshaped over time. Redlining, infrastructure projects like the construction of Interstate-35E, and local policies altered the physical landscape and reduced the number of historic structures that remain.

Tenth Street is widely recognized as the most intact Freedmen’s Town in the country, and that designation matters. The Tenth Street Historic District is listed on the National Register of Historic Places under Criterion A for its association with patterns of Black community formation and development after Emancipation.

That designation is intended to recognize and help protect the historic built environment. It identifies structures and landscapes as significant, but it does not, on its own, tell the full story of the people who built and sustained the community.

The designation is also incomplete. The historic district reflects only part of the original settlement. Portions of the founding community, including areas within Miller’s 4 Acres, fall outside of current landmark and National Register boundaries. As a result, the designation does not fully capture the geographic scope of the community as it was established.

What remains in Tenth Street is only part of what was built, and the historical record itself is fragmented. Materials connected to Tenth Street exist across repositories, often without being named as part of the community, which obscures the full history. In some cases, those materials have remained unprocessed since the 1980s, limiting access and visibility.

This collection brings those pieces into relation. It makes visible both what has endured in Tenth Street and what has been lost, while centering the people whose lives, relationships, and institutions shaped the community across generations.

Now that it is made fully accessible online, which collection materials would you say are particularly significant, and provide a good place to start?

The oral histories are central to the collection. They are presented as video recordings, audio recordings, and full transcripts. Residents, descendants, preservation advocates, and city officials speak from their own positions about Tenth Street. They describe growing up in the neighborhood, how it has changed over time, the impact of policy decisions, and what they want for its future.

Work on the project also engages with existing records across multiple repositories. One example is the 1938 Federal Writers’ Project interview with Mose Hursey, a Freedman and resident of Tenth Street, held in the Library of Congress (see his photo here). That interview has been part of the archive for decades, but it captures only a portion of his life. Research conducted through this project expanded that record, correcting key details and connecting Hursey to the Hursey–Bolden family. It traces his life beyond the limited frame of the original interview and situates him within a broader family network that remained rooted in Tenth Street across generations. The Hursey–Bolden family home was documented as part of this project and was lost to fire in January 2026.

Counter maps are another key part of the collection. They were developed using materials drawn from multiple collections, including issues of The Dallas Express available through Chronicling America and Portal to Texas History, as well as directory listings accessed through Portal to Texas History and Southern Methodist University, alongside oral histories and community memory.

Supported by historical archaeologist Dr. Kathryn A. Cross, the maps draw on the pictorial cartographic tradition of Louise E. Jefferson. They bring together place and memory, showing how people described the neighborhood, how spaces were used, and where businesses were located. Through this process, we identified, documented, and mapped the names and locations of community anchor institutions and businesses across Tenth Street.

Research connected to Oak Cliff Cemetery has identified more than 150 additional individuals beyond earlier burial inventories and is ongoing, continuing to expand the documented record of families connected to Tenth Street. Community genealogist Dolores Rodgers contributed research that helped identify individuals and connect them to families in the community.

Taken together, the collection preserves materials, builds on existing records, reconnects them, and situates people within the community they were part of. All of the materials were documented through kinkofa’s fieldwork, working directly with residents and descendants.

From the start of the If Tenth Street Could Talk project, you knew that the resultant documentation would come together as a collection in the American Folklife Center archives and online, on the Library of Congress website. I’m curious how knowing that it would be preserved, and also made available online, shaped your project work?

Knowing the collection would be preserved in the Library of Congress shaped the project from the proposal stage and informed how the work was designed, including what would be documented, how interviews would be conducted, and how materials would be described.

There was a level of care required to ensure the collection would hold up over time as part of the historical record.

At the same time, we were intentional about what would and would not be included in the collection. Some materials were kept at the community level so they could remain in family ownership and not be separated from their context.

The approach also drew on methods that descendants and community members have used for decades to document and preserve Tenth Street. That includes oral history, community memory, and place-based knowledge. We extended those methods through the project and engaged young people from Oak Cliff in the work, creating opportunities for them to participate in documenting the community and understanding its history.

Because the collection would be available online, we approached the work with a broader audience in mind, including people outside of Dallas and future researchers. At the same time, we remained grounded in the community. Residents and descendants were not treated as subjects, but as contributors whose knowledge and materials shaped the collection.

Working with the American Folklife Center provided a structure for how materials were organized and prepared for long-term preservation. That supported consistency across the project while still allowing the collection to reflect the specificity of Tenth Street.

The work itself is ongoing. The collection represents a portion of what has been documented, but not the full scope of the history. That is part of why the Tenth Street Digital Museum exists. It creates space to continue documenting, to bring additional materials into context, and to present the history in ways that can evolve over time.

There is also a broader context for this work. In Dallas, conversations about local history and preservation are ongoing. At the national level, the recognition of Juneteenth as a federal holiday has brought increased attention to the history of emancipation, and the approaching 250th anniversary of the United States raises questions about how that history is told and whose stories are included.

Knowing the collection would be part of that national record made it important to document Tenth Street in a way that reflects both its historical significance and the lived experience of the people connected to it.

On that important note, let’s turn to the new Tenth Street Historic District Digital Museum. How did it come about, and what does it offer that may be different from the online collection?

The Tenth Street Digital Museum came out of limitations we recognized early in the work. Materials connected to Tenth Street were scattered across institutions and often limited in scope, with relatively little documentation available in a single place. At the same time, many of the existing narratives about the community were repeated across sources and did not always reflect the full or accurate history.

The museum creates that space. It allows us to bring materials into relation with one another and to present the history in a way that reflects how the community understands Tenth Street, not only how it appears in the archival record.

It also allows the work to continue. The collection represents a defined set of materials at a specific point in time. The museum is not fixed in the same way. It creates space to add new documentation, incorporate ongoing research and upcoming events, and include knowledge that remains at the community level.

Access was also a consideration. Archival collections require a certain level of familiarity to navigate. The museum provides narrative, structure, and visual context that make the history more legible to a broader audience without flattening it.

It also supports a different kind of storytelling. By bringing together oral histories, mapping, and documentation, the museum makes it possible to see relationships across people, places, and institutions. It allows for a clearer understanding of how the neighborhood functioned and how it has changed over time, including the loss of contributing structures.

The collection and the museum serve different roles. The collection ensures long-term preservation. The museum creates a space for interpretation, context, and ongoing work.

While both your online collection and museum are new, I’m wondering if you could share a little bit about their impacts within the community, as I know community collaborators have been involved in every step of the way.

Community collaborators were involved in every stage of the project, shaping both the process and the outcomes.

One of the most immediate impacts has been documentation. Residents and descendants recorded oral histories, shared knowledge, and saw their experiences reflected in the collection and the museum. That included capturing stories that had not been formally documented, as well as identifying archival materials that support long-held community knowledge and help clarify or correct parts of the historical record. The work also included community and family genealogies, which help connect descendants to the history and to one another, bringing more people into the fold as advocates for Tenth Street.

A clearer understanding of Tenth Street’s early history also emerged. By bringing together oral histories, archival materials, and community knowledge, the project helped correct and expand foundational narratives about the community, including the roles of families who established and sustained Tenth Street.

Intergenerational engagement was another outcome. Elders shared knowledge and participated in oral histories, while young people from Oak Cliff participated in a field school with Remembering Black Dallas, kinkofa, the Southern Methodist University (SMU) Voices Oral History Project, and SMU Libraries, where they visited archives and learned how to research and document community history. That helped connect younger generations to Tenth Street and to the people who have sustained it.

Through If Tenth Street Could Talk, the integration of oral histories, mapping, and documentation has shaped how the history is understood and shared, making it easier to see relationships across the neighborhood and to understand changes in the built environment over time.

Beyond the collection itself, the work has been shared through news coverage and public-facing projects. That visibility has created ripple effects, contributing to increased interest in Tenth Street and attracting additional projects, including forthcoming artistic work and exhibitions connected to the community.

The museum has also created opportunities for collaboration with local repositories. Materials connected to Tenth Street exist across institutions, often without being named as part of the community. Bringing those materials into relation has supported deeper collaboration and contributed to how those collections are understood, described, and connected.

I am sure you have a number of next steps in mind, so what are you working on now, and what plans are underway?

We are continuing this work through kinkofa’s Preserve the Culture™ tour, beginning in Dallas. The tour focuses on documenting Black history and community-held archives by inviting families to bring in their photographs, documents, and other materials for on-site digitization, alongside oral history collection and public programming.

In Dallas, this work is being carried out in conjunction with Remembering Black Dallas and is supported by a Mellon Foundation Community-Based Archives grant, which supports kinkofa and Remembering Black Dallas in bringing this work to other Black communities across the Dallas–Fort Worth area. It will also support the creation of a digital community archive.

We are also developing a traveling exhibition that builds on the Tenth Street Digital Museum and brings the work into physical spaces. In addition, we are conducting ongoing research at Oak Cliff Cemetery, including a GIS-based survey planned for this fall and continuing into 2027 to better understand how many individuals are buried there. That work will support the creation of memorials and other forms of public acknowledgment, including art along the back wall following the completion of a nearby road project.

Alongside this, we are continuing to build tools and infrastructure that support families and communities in documenting, preserving, and sharing their histories on their own terms.

Thank you, Tameshia and Jourdan, and congratulations, again! We will follow your continued work closely!

For further information on Dallas’s Tenth Street Historic District and its historical importance, you can read the following essay by Tameshia Rudd-Ridge and Jourdan Brunson: The History and Preservation of the Tenth Street Historic District in Oak Cliff Freedmen’s Town, Dallas, Texas