2018 March Oak Cliff

Faithful Music

A Texas Gentleman

F I GHT CAN CER

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OPENING REMARKS

By RICK WAMRE

Useless chatter

We have a plethora of platforms to share our thoughts, but what do we have to say?

The most incredible fact of life today is that talk is cheap, and every day it becomes even cheaper.

And by “cheap,” I don’t just mean how any of us can broadcast any message we want anywhere on earth with the click of a button and at virtually no cost to the sender or receiver.

I also mean that talk has become so “cheap” we often don’t realize how little we have to say while we’re saying it.

We have literally arrived at a time and place in the world where any of us — rich or poor, educated or illiterate — can and do broadcast our thoughts faster than we can process those thoughts’ intelligence or rationality in our own minds.

My thoughts today were triggered by a recent Dodge RAM truck commercial extolling community service that was aired during the Super Bowl. Encouraging people to help each other typically wasn’t once a controversial topic, but when Dodge included a portion of Martin Luther King’s “The Drum Major’s Instinct” speech from 50 years ago, the opinions started flying.

There’s no value in regurgitating those comments, other than to say that a lot were clearly made on the spur of the moment and without much knowledge about King’s speech.

I had never heard of the speech, either, so rather than immediately opining, I found the speech online.

And what I found is that King had some interesting things to say in it about service, advertising (he had some doubts about advertising leading people astray) and life just a couple of months prior to his assassination.

“If you want to be important — wonderful,” King says in the speech. “If you want to be recognized — wonderful. If you want to be great — wonderful. But recognize that he who is greatest among you shall be your servant. That’s a new

definition of greatness….

“By giving that definition of greatness, it means that everybody can be great. You don’t have to know about Plato and Aristotle to serve. You don’t have to know the theory of relativity to serve. You don’t have to know the second theory of thermodynamics in physics to serve. You only need a heart full of grace, a soul generated by love….

“I’d like somebody to mention that day [of his funeral] that Martin Luther King Jr. tried to live his life serving others. I’d like for somebody to say that day that Martin Luther King Jr. tried to love somebody. I want you to say that day that I tried to be right on the war question. I want you to say that day that I did try to feed the hungry. And I want you to be able to say that day that I did try in my life to clothe those who were naked. I want you to say that day that I did try in my life to visit those who were in prison. I want you to say that I tried to love and serve humanity….

“Yes, if you want to say that I was a drum major, say that I was a drum major for justice. Say that I was a drum major for peace. I was a drum major for righteousness. And all of the other shallow things will not matter. I won’t have any money to leave behind. But I just want to leave a committed life behind. And that’s all I want to say.”

A Facebook Live video trashing a politician.

A Nextdoor stream of consciousness filled with barbed comments about neighbors.

A website jammed with selfies in various stages of dress and demeanor.

A committed life.

Which will be the more valuable legacy?

Rick Wamre is president of Advocate Media. Let him know how we are doing by emailing rwamre@advocatemag.com.

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contributing photographers: Rasy Ran, Kathy Tran, Kathleen Kennedy

Advocate, © 2018, is published monthly by East Dallas – Lakewood People Inc. Contents of this magazine may not be reproduced. Advertisers and advertising agencies assume liability for the content of all advertisements printed, and therefore assume responsibility for any and all claims against the Advocate. The publisher reserves the right to accept or reject any editorial or advertising material. Opinions set forth in the Advocate are those of the writers and do not necessarily reflect the publisher’s viewpoint. More than 200,000 people read Advocate publications each month. Advertising rates and guidelines are available upon request. Advocate publications are available free of charge throughout our neighborhoods, one copy per reader. Advocate was founded in 1991 by Jeff Siegel, Tom Zielinski and Rick Wamre.

L A UNCH

MARCH 3

All Out Trinity

This celebration has a little something for everyone: yoga on the bridge, the Trinity River Levee Run and The Dallas Gravel Ride bike race.

Margaret Hunt Hill Bridge, allouttrinity.com,$15-$85

Out & About

MARCH 1

MUSICAL SATIRE

Singer-songwriter Roy Zimmerman brings his political satire to Oak Cliff from Northern California. Unitarian Church Oak Cliff, 3839 W. Kiest Blvd., oakcliffuu.org, 214.337.2429

MARCH 3

JON BATISTE

Taking a break from being the musical director on “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert,” bandleader and composer Jon Batiste breaks out on his own for a solo performance. The Kessler Theater, 1230 W. Davis St., thekessler.org, 214.272.8346, $25-45

MARCH 3

OUTDOOR MARKET

Little D Markets will organize an outdoor market of local vendors during All Out Trinity.

Ronald Kirk Pedestrian Bridge, 115 Continental Ave., littledmarkets. com, free

MARCH 10

LAUGH OUT LOUD

Steve Treviño is a South Texas native whose first comedy special, “Grandpa Joe’s Son,” premiered on Showtime in 2012. His new special, “Relatable,” is on Netflix.

The Texas Theatre, 231 W. Jefferson Blvd., thetexastheatre.com, 214.948.1546, $24-$34

MARCH 12

EL BOOK CLUB

The bookstore bar

The Wild Detectives’ usual book club takes a Spanish twist with a reading of “Rendición” by Ray Loriga.

The Wild Detectives, 314 W. Eight St., thewilddetectives. com, 214.942.0108, free

MARCH 24

JAZZ MASTERS

Two jazz powerhouses, Vincent Ingala and Julian Vaughn, meet to create a magical night of smooth rhythms. The saxophone and bass go perfectly with complimentary cocktails.

Bishop Arts Theatre Center, 215 S. Tyler St., bishopartstheatre. org, 214.948.0716, $70

PHOTO BY DANNY FULGENCIO

ABOUT THE COVER

Local artist Theo Ponchaveli painted a mural of Selena Quintanilla on the wall of his studio behind the Belmont a few years ago.

Ponchaveli and Arturo Donjuan collaborated on a second Selena mural at Country Burger restaurant in 2017. He painted a third one at Last Call Lounge on Centre Street.

Selena was from Corpus Christi, and she never lived in Dallas, but she did perform at the State Fair of Texas many times. Selena is especially beloved in Oak Cliff, and we know she was here a few times.

She once recorded a very lowbudget music video at Martin Weiss Park (Search oakcliff. advocatemag.com for “Selena video”). And Country Burger is a veritable shrine to the Tejano singer, who was killed two weeks before her 24th birthday in 1995.

The creative clique known as Faded DeeJays helps us celebrate Selena every March.

Here are Faded DeeJays’ Selena events this year:

Friday, March 30

The Texas Theatre screens “Selena” at 7 p.m.

Top Ten Records hosts a Selena art show and reception from 8 p.m.-midnight.

Saturday, March 31

Country Burger celebrates “Selena Day” with low-riders and a Selena lookalike contest from 2-6 p.m.

Club Dada hosts the Selena after party from 10 p.m.-2 a.m.

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NICE GUYS ROCK

Texas Gentlemen ringleader Beau Bedford lives up to the name

By RACHEL STONE

Photo by DANNY FULGENCIO

n “Letters to a Young Poet,” Rainer Maria Rilke writes, “Confess to yourself that you would die if you were forbidden to write. And look deep into your heart where it spreads its roots, the answer, and ask yourself, must I write?”

That is the sentiment that music producer Beau Bedford expresses to young musicians.

“You should only be a songwriter or an artist if you cannot help but do it. If you’d do anything else you’d die inside,” he says. “The money’s never good, and when it is, the fame sucks. If you don’t love it, then don’t do it.”

Bedford and business partner Jeff Saenz opened their studio, Modern Electric Sound Recorders, in East Dallas a few years ago. Bedford, who lives near the Belmont Hotel, is well known among local musicians as a songwriting coach, engineer and producer. But he’s more widely known as the ringleader of The Texas Gentlemen, which started as a back-

ing band of Dallas-based musicians. They backed Kris Kristofferson at the Newport Folk Festival in 2016. And they played a private party behind George Strait.

The Gents put out their own album, “TX Jelly,” last year. It includes a hodgepodge of songs they recorded in Muscle Shoals, Alabama, and they’ve got another album’s worth of songs from that session ready to go.

The Newport Folk Festival put the Texas Gentlemen on the map. How did you get that gig?

We had never played outside the state before. And the Belmont hotel guys called us and said, “What are you doing July 26?” Well, we were going to be playing the West Coast with Paul Cauthen. And they were like, “What about Kris Kristofferson at the Newport Folk Festival?”

The Belmont had done a whole concert series for a year that featured the Texas Gentlemen. They’ve been solid gold in helping define what we’re doing in the music business.

What was it like to play with Kris Kristofferson?

Kris and his wife, Lisa, are the most amazing people. They’re the kind of people that you’re like, “I hope I can be like them when I grow up.” They’re very influential to our whole scene. He did an acoustic set by himself, and it immediately became the favorite show I’ve ever seen. I was crying the whole time. It was very heavy. He’s such an American self-made man, but he’s so kind and genteel and he listens to anybody. He’s truly a legend.

How did the Texas Gentlemen come together?

We’ve all been making music together for almost 10 years. We just started calling ourselves that about four years ago. Daniel Creamer was 16 years old when I met him. I was making a record with his brother Philip Creamer of Dovetail. It really came about because as I was making records, I would just use these same musicians all the time.

bath

Acre Heavily Treed Kessler Park

bed/2 bath

sqft/Tax

EAST DALLAS

March 29, Maundy Thursday, 6:30 PM

Grace United Methodist

EDCC joins with our friends at Grace

March 30, Good Friday, 7:30 PM

EDCC Sanctuary

Stay With Me Tenebrae Service

EDCC Chancel Choir and Grace United Methodist Church Choir Dan Totan, Cello; Daniel Pardo, Flute

March 31, Saturday, 4 - 5 PM

Community Easter Egg Hunt

April 1, Easter Sunday

CELEBRATING THE RISEN CHRIST

Sunrise Service

10:45 - Noon - The Sanctuary Worship Service and Communion Joyous Music led by the Chancel Choir, Brass and Organ

East Dallas Christian Church 629 N. Peak Street  Dallas, TX 75246 www.edcc.org

Leon Bridges recorded at Modern Electric, and now he’s a worldwide super star.

I’ll never forget the first time I heard “Lisa Sawyer.” He came up and asked if he could play between our sets. When he played that song, it wrecked my world. He was like, “Someone gave me this guitar; do you mind if I play a song between your sets?” He was like a busboy at a restaurant nearby. And he was so inexperienced as a performer that when he finished his song, he would take his hand off the guitar and be like, “song over.” He’s such the real deal. It was like seeing Bill Withers show up and do a song between your sets. Leon, to me, just embodies so much of that spirit where it was just inside of him and he had to get it out. As a full music scene, that’s our favorite thing is finding authentic artists like that. They’re not trying to make music to please an audience. They’re making it because they have to.

Why did you record “TX Jelly” in Muscle Shoals?

We went into Muscle Shoals because I had an artist who fell through. We were going to be there for [Alabama-based designer] Billy Reid’s Shindig. We had just played the Kris Kristofferson show at Newport, so a lot of things were lining up for us. We didn’t try to make anything. We just made that record. We literally went into the studio with no ambition. It turned into something that none of us expected. We had 16 people working at once at one point. Cutting as many tracks as we could. It was so much fun. It was like our own little rock ‘n’ roll fantasy camp.

3500 Maple Ave. Suite 440 Dallas, TX 75219 ric@ricshanahan.com getric.biz

It seems like a lot of the good things that happen with the Gents is luck and timing.

That’s been a huge part of the Texas Gentlemen. There’s no master plan. When stuff comes up and we feel it’s right, it’s just like, “Yes, we’ll go do it.” It’s being willing and able to jump into the moment.

I’ve heard young songwriters credit you as an influence.

I love the songwriters because they’re the complete answer to art that is done for materialistic reasons. We have enough people making art for that reason. Let’s be the counterculture to that. Let’s make

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BISHOP DUNNE CATHOLIC SCHOOL

Contact: Charleen Doan at 214.339.6561 ext. 4020 or admission@bdcs.org

A co-educational, college preparatory school serving students in grades 6-12. We provide a strong faith and valuebased education with high academic standards, encouraging all students to achieve their full potential. Our curriculum emphasizes individualized attention, and is constantly at the forefront of technology integration through the use of laptops, ebooks, and our Online Education Program. Additionally, we provide a full range of extracurricular activities ranging from athletics, to the arts, to clubs and service organizations.

art for timeless reasons. Maybe you won’t win a platinum award. Maybe you will. Look at guys like Willie Nelson. Texas was one of the few places that people were willing to receive his music when he left Nashville. He touched people because he was writing songs about hurt and pain and triumph, and it revolutionized Texas music for sure. I think it’s a duty for people like myself to carry on that heritage and help young artists realize that they don’t have to go that way. You don’t have to make music just to make a living. You can do a bullshit job and still be a great artist.

What do you look for in an artist?

It doesn’t turn us on to hear someone who has a really catchy song and wants to make a record. If we’re interested, it’s because they have something special inside. The person behind the art is just as important to the art itself. If we build up terrible human beings because they know how to distort truth, then we’re hosed. We have to celebrate people because they’re a Kris Kristofferson. I want young writers to be inspired by those people. If Kris Kristofferson was a shit person, we probably wouldn’t give two shits about him. Be an artist and live it. Don’t put a façade up and be something else behind the scenes.

What local artists are you excited about right now?

• Technology Enhanced Classrooms

• Reading/Writing Workshop Model

• STEM Lab, Art, Music & Library Time

• Spanish, PE and Recess Daily

• Low Student-to-Teacher Ratio

• Innovative Partnerships

• After School Care & Enrichment Programs

Josh T. Pearson. We cut a record, and I’m not sure when it’s coming out. “The Straight Hits” is coming out now. He’s the perfect example of the real deal artist. Nobody is more committed than Josh. Kirby Brown has a new record; it’s the second one I’ve done with him. Paul Cauthen has recorded a lot of new stuff. We’ve got so much material coming out. We’re overly blessed in Dallas to have the artists we have.

You think?

Yes. One of our goals is to keep artists here. We have this unique identity that’s part of making music here that you don’t get anywhere else. When we go to Alabama or Nashville, there’s a special feeling about those places. Well, I’m here. I will not move because I feel the same thing for Dallas. I want to send the message that when we do things as a community, we can become better human beings and hopefully be agents of change on a more global scale.

What are your plans for this year?

Touring with the Gents. We’re playing Bonnaroo. Making records. Finishing up a bunch of Paul Cauthen songs. I’m really excited about all of that stuff. We’ll always be busy here.

Can anyone wear a Texas Gentlemen T-shirt?

Of course! Unless you suck. If you are not a gentleman or a gentle lady, get out of here. Do not associate yourself with us. It was actually created to be a fraternal order. We made music together, and we wanted to build a good culture. When I ordered the shirts, I was like, “I need this shirt in one week for SXSW. It just needs to say ‘Texas Gentlemen,’ just like that Shotgun Willie shirt.” It’s classic and iconic. It’s so cool seeing that shirt around. I love it. You can’t be an asshole when you’re wearing a shirt that says “gentlemen.” This interview has been edited for clarity and brevity.

DELICIOUS

Lunch and learn

At Garnish Kitchen, buy an affordable gourmet meal or learn to cook one at home

By RACHEL STONE

Photos by KATHLEEN KENNEDY

The $9 sandwiches at Garnish Kitchen include Carolina pulled pork, a Reuben and a fried-egg sandwich with bacon and arugula.

They also have $12 flat breads — one with prosciutto, egg and baby spinach, plus a margherita and one with pepperoni with goat cheese.

A recently added dinner menu has just three entrees — brick-oven chicken served on an arugula and focaccia salad ($16), beef short ribs served on buttermilk polenta ($18), and a sweet chili salmon with red miso broth and bok choy over jasmine rice ($16).

The café offers a few deli case items, including chicken salad and house-made

pickles and spices. And they plan to start offering a few whole chickens for takeout every day.

The food is great, but it’s only half the business plan.

Garnish Kitchen also has a state-ofthe-art teaching kitchen, where chef Aaron Hubbard offers a range of classes.

A serious home cook could take the poultry class, where students learn to choose, cut and roast a whole chicken, plus make a stock. There are classes to learn knife skills and how to make pasta and risotto.

And then there are date-night classes, where couples can learn to make a meal and dessert together. The tapas-andsangria class offers sips of fruit-infused

wine along with lessons on mussels, empanadas and other small plates.

“All of our classes are designed for any skill level,” Hubbard says. “And you always come away with something to bring home.”

Garnish Kitchen also offers classes for children 8 and older.

GARNISH KITCHEN

Ambience: Market deli

Price range: $8-$18

Hours: 10 a.m.-9 p.m. TuesdaySaturday, closed Monday and Sunday 1314 W. Davis

972.685.5302

garnishkitchen.com

The brick-oven chicken dinner entree at Garnish Kitchen, served on a salad of arugula and focaccia.

Neighborhood schools have been good to Ermin Macias and Andy Ramirez. Their 7-year-old daughter, Elise, is at Rosemont Elementary, where all their children started. Sons, Elijah, 17, and Noah, 14, chose to leave Dallas ISD’s Booker T. Washington arts magnet for Sunset High School. Oldest daughter, Sophia (not pictured), was last year’s Sunset valedictorian.

SONS RISE AT SUNSET

The Ramirez family backs its neighborhood schools

By KERI MITCHELL

Photo by DANNY FULGENCIO

Andy Ramirez’s oldest son was part of the first group of dual language students at Rosemont Elementary School. When he left after fifth grade to attend Greiner Middle School, other Rosemont parents were surprised.

“Why would you do that? Why would you leave the bubble?” she remembers them asking her. “I thought, ‘Well, but I am that kid. That’s where I came from.’ ”

Ramirez grew up in Oak Cliff and graduated from Sunset High School. “I’ve lived in the same 5-mile radius for 42 years — my whole life,” she says.

Both of Ramirez’s sons now attend her alma mater. They chose it over the Booker T. Washington arts magnet, where the boys were accepted after excelling in the arts academy at Greiner. Her daughter was last year’s Sunset valedictorian and now studies physics at the University of Texas at Austin.

Ramirez wasn’t impressed by her own Dallas ISD education in the ’80s and ’90s. She considered private schools and transferring her children to Duncanville public schools. She even considered homeschooling. But having three kids close in age made those options financially and logistically difficult.

As a result, she joined the group of parents who decided to send their kids to Rosemont and build the school’s reputation.

“We had a group of parents in the neighborhood who decided, ‘This is a good school; it could be better. Let’s do it. Let’s change the dynamic of the school,’ ”

Ramirez says. “And we did, and it worked out great.”

The same thing could happen at Greiner and Sunset, she believes.

Part of what scares parents away is “a cultural difference,” Ramirez says. “You’re getting more kids who are just a little bit rough around the edges.” But Ramirez sees an uptick in parents at Sunset who are trying to hold the school accountable.

“The school has come so far from where it was 20 years ago,” Ramirez says. “They’re introducing a lot more with the collegiate [academy], and it’s a great school.”

The collegiate academies launched this past fall, a year after Sunset alumna Claudia Vega took the helm as principal. In addition to the academies, Vega is making changes that allow students who want a traditional, comprehensive high school experience to still pursue college credits.

Ramirez’ daughter’s success in a comprehensive high school — and the fact that she is excelling at UT — was

SUNSET HIGH SCHOOL

by the numbers

1,963 students attend Sunset.

95.3

percent of students are economically disadvantaged.

430

students live in Sunset’s attendance zone but transfer out for other programs, with 260 choosing magnet and academy schools within DISD.

131

freshmen are enrolled in Sunset’s collegiate academies, studying either public health or bilingual education.

90

juniors and seniors are taking college level dual-credit courses at Sunset.

33

college credits can be earned by traditional Sunset students who aren’t part of the collegiate academies, in addition to credits earned with Advanced Placement (AP) tests.

81.7

percent of Sunset students passed their AP tests last year, compared to 83.7 percent at Woodrow Wilson High School, the comprehensive DISD school with the highest rate.

Sources: Dallas ISD data portal, Sunset principal Claudia Vega

a major factor in her sons’ decision to leave Booker T. for Sunset.

Sunset, Greiner and so many others in Oak Cliff already are “great schools,” Ramirez says. If parents who are opting for private or magnet schools chose neighborhood schools instead, the schools would improve. “I really believe it just requires more parent involvement,” she says.

“I’ve seen it happen,” Ramirez says. “I saw it at Rosemont when I was there. There’s no doubt.”

Hear more from Ramirez’s about neighborhood schools in our podcast, The Uninformed Parent, available at oakcliff.avocatemag.com/podcast

“We had a group of parents in the neighborhood who decided, ‘This is a good school; it could be better. Let’s do it. Let’s change the dynamic of the school.’ ”

DISD THE MOVIE

The plot twists, the players, the money, the drama ...

Look past the news of the day and you’ll find a story worthy of the big screen. It’s an entertaining tragedy — unless you’re a taxpayer, parent or child in the district’s schools.

reporting by

Story by KERI MITCHELL | Art by CHRISTIAN WELCH & JYNNETTE NEAL

Additional

JACKSON VICKERY & CHRISTIAN WELCH

Only nine people control a $1.8 billion budget that impacts 157,000 schoolchildren — and the economic future of Dallas.

THE MIKES

Current DISD

Like any good movie, the Dallas ISD story begins with a simple premise: Once upon a time, trustees of all races work together to save the district’s children from an educational nightmare.

As in any good movie, though, there is plenty of conflict and drama along the way.

As the story proceeds, DISD hires a superintendent with great ideas for reform but seemingly no personal skills. Some trustees fund election campaigns to defeat fellow trustees. Two trustees bash a third trustee on an accidentally recorded phone call. A group of seemingly powerful Dallas politicians botches a coup designed to replace the board of trustees.

The “good guys” (self-described “reformers” in this story) haven’t always been good. The “bad guys” (in this story, those not sold on “reform”) have some good reasons for being bad.

And let’s not forget the ever-present issue of race and discrimination always lurking in the background of every scene.

“We are the worst public enemy to black children in Dallas?” District 9 Dallas ISD trustee Bernadette Nutall asks rhetorically about a column written by a local journalist. “That was hurtful.

“African-American board members have always been willing to work across the table, but the problem is when we don’t do what you say [to] do, how you say [to] do it, we’re the problem,” Nutall says.

The African-American DISD trustees “are always the ones that have to do the olive branch,” she says, “and you want us to come and be like, ‘Yes, Massa, I need to think whatever you say [to] think.’ ”

So sit back, try to relax, and grab some popcorn and a bottle of Advil.

The cliffhanger: Will there be a happy ending?

SET THE SCENE: A board divided

Two years ago, Audrey Pinkerton faced an opponent with three times the money in his war chest and the Dallas business community on his side. But she still handily won the race for the District 7 seat on the Dallas ISD board.

Her opponent, Isaac Faz, and her predecessor, Eric Cowan, saw themselves as education reformers. It’s a staunch identity for some and nebulous for others. But five of the nine current board trustees, a simple voting majority, are reformers who tend to aggressively push policies and funnel funds into programs that research has shown to be effective in educating children — especially those who live in poverty, as nearly 90 percent of DISD children do.

Pinkerton is among the four trustees who proceed with more caution. Even though the board votes unanimously almost 80 percent of the time, the minority cohort is more likely to question sweeping policy changes. Some questions stem from beliefs about fiscal responsibility or disagreements about best practices.

But much of it comes down to trust. As hundreds of thousands of dollars pour into campaign coffers, PACs and nonprofits, all in the name of progress, it stirs the suspicions of those who see it as wealthy white men’s attempt to take over public education.

FADE-IN: Empowered without an election

“Without a single vote cast, one-third of the board was sworn in.”

That’s how Melissa Higginbotham describes the event that birthed Dallas Kids First, a political action committee that formed in 2011. That spring, the Dallas ISD board election was canceled because only three people filed to run

ESTABLISHING SHOT:

What is education reform?

No one agrees on the definition, not even the people who identify as reformers (visit advocatemag.com for varying perspectives), but here in Dallas, reformers champion datadriven academic policies, such as quality pre-K for everyone, and are willing to move quickly to change the status quo. One sharp political divide is over reformers’ successful push to use student test scores and frequent evaluations to identify and reward effective teachers. Other, more riskaverse trustees value experienced teachers and community support rather than top-down mandates and standardized test results. This impasse leads to disagreements on a whole host of other issues.

for the three open seats.

Around the same time, the Dallas Chamber of Commerce was discussing how to attract big companies to the city. One of the reasons Dallas was being passed over for the suburbs was the reputation of its public schools. The chamber’s education PAC, Educate Dallas, emerged to deal with this problem by tackling school board races.

A few months prior, Mike Morath — who, within five years, would ascend to Texas’ highest education position — met businessman Todd Williams over lunch. An hour turned into four as the two conversed about their passion for public education.

They shared a lot in common. Both were products of public schools — Williams from DISD’s Bryan Adams High School in ’78 and Morath from Garland High School in ’95. Both had experienced business success — Williams as a Goldman Sachs partner and Morath as a software entrepreneur. Williams had retired, and Morath had sold his company for millions.

And both, with time and money on their hands, were considering running for the Dallas school board. They left lunch agreeing that Morath would run, and Williams would create an organization to connect the dots about what is and isn’t working in public schools.

Morath was one of the three unopposed DISD candidates that May, the

Supt. Michael Hinojosa preceded and succeeded Supt. Mike Miles, the reformer who was hired in 2012 and quit in 2015.

same month that former Pizza Hut CEO Mike Rawlings was elected mayor of Dallas. Rawlings joined the chamber’s new strategy of focusing on public education and named Williams his education advisor. Out of that came the Commit! Partnership. For five years, this organization has used data and research to identify best practices that will support Dallas County students “from cradle to career.”

It was a “constellation of forces that ended up being at the right place at the right time,” one reformer recalls. At that point, the Dallas business community had disengaged from public schools because their children no longer attended them.

Williams regularly walks into rooms full of Dallas executives to give Commit presentations and asks how many people attended public school. Hands shoot up. When he asks how many send their children to public school, hands are sparse.

“My fear is in 20 years, my replacement goes into a room and nobody can raise their hand. God help our city,” Williams says. “I knew that I had to talk to them in a language that they spoke, and that was data.”

He joined the board of Uplift Education, the largest charter network in Texas and even opened his own charter school, Williams Prep, in 2007. After years on the board, he concluded that “we can grow Uplift 25 percent a year, and it will take us 25 years to have the impact Dallas ISD could make.”

“The solution is traditional public schools, and that’s how I spend my time,” he says. But to people who distrust him, he says, “I think they just look at me and see the surface. They see a rich white North Dallas guy who worked at Goldman Sachs.”

CUT TO: The voicemail incident

Dallas Kids First started endorsing candidates in 2012. Their biggest statement was supporting newcomer Dan Micciche in his challenge of incumbent Bruce Parrot for the Far East Dallas seat. Micciche raised more money than any other board candidate in history that spring with nearly $90,000, much of it coming from the two new education PACs.

The seemingly sleepy race was in southern Dallas, where incumbent Bernadette Nutall was defending her seat against then 20-year-old Damarcus Offord. Nutall, in her first term, had voted months before the election to close 11 Dallas ISD schools. The decision earned her praise from the Dallas Morning News editorial board, who noted that “Nutall, in particular, showed courage” because “five [schools] were in South Dallas, an area she represents.”

Both of Dallas’ new education PACs endorsed Nutall. Another Morning News editorial that January named her alongside Morath and Trustee Edwin Flores as “a bloc that appreciates the value of education reforms.”

Nutall traveled with Todd Williams to L.A., Indianapolis and Cincinnati to study nonprofits after which Commit would be modeled. When Dallas Kids First discovered that only three of every 100 black boys who started in Dallas ISD graduated high school college-ready, Nutall and Morath toured southern Dallas churches to preach the urgency of the problem.

Then came the “voicemail incident.” Two months after Nutall was re-elected in 2012, Morath failed to hang up after

leaving her a voicemail. The ensuing, recorded conversation between him and former trustee Nancy Bingham “dealt with [Nutall] as a board member and questioned whether she reads board documents,” according to a Dallas Morning News story.

The two trustees discussed the situation, worked it out and were moving on, the story said. But that story was the last time Morath and Nutall were described as having “a good relationship.”

ZOOM IN: The vote to reject free money

Superintendent Mike Miles came from Colorado in April 2012 with the reputation of being “a reformer, an innovator and someone not afraid to shake the status quo.” His vision was to pay teachers according to their performance, demand higher graduation rates and college entrance exam scores, and form a leadership academy to create a pool of principals to replace those who couldn’t cut it.

Less than two months after she voted to hire him, Nutall told Miles she would

FLASHBACK: White people have left the (public school) building

The percentage of white, black and Hispanic students attending Dallas ISD has changed drastically over the last five decades.

54% 36%10%

in 1971, the year court-ordered desegregation began.

6% 31% 61%

in 2003, the year court-ordered desegregation ended, after white families left DISD for private school or the suburbs.

5% 22%

in 2018.

70%

“You want us to come and be like, ‘Yes, Massa, I need to think whatever you say [to] think.’ ”

—Bernadette Nutall, DISD District 9 Trustee

“I think they just look at me and see the surface. They see a rich white North Dallas guy who worked at Goldman Sachs.”

—Todd Williams, founder of the Commit! Partnership

vote against his plan. In an article headlining their “testy exchange,” Miles told Nutall she should “resign yourself to the fact that there’s a new superintendent … You asked me to put together a plan to move the district forward. I’ve done that.”

Miles gave the southern sector trustees a force to galvanize against. A year after Miles arrived, Observer columnist Jim Schutze accused Nutall and Trustee Lew Blackburn of being “at war with Superintendent Mike Miles over school reform.” Schutze had obtained letters and emails from DISD executives complaining about Nutall’s threats that if they removed certain southern Dallas principals, “the community will come after you.”

REFORM-MINDED

PACS have funneled $500,000 into trustee campaigns since 2012. They supported these five trustees in their most recent bid for office.

She later rejected a plan to infuse schools in southern Dallas with $20 million. More than half of the money would come from SMU and nonprofits to pay for things like more teachers and better preschool programs. Nutall was upset that the community wasn’t consulted.

“What this board is doing is dumping something on South Dallas. You continue to disrespect and be dismissive of the southern sector of Dallas,” Nutall said before the vote. “What I’m asking you to do is not to come into South Dallas and just experiment with our children.”

The plan passed, and other board members expressed surprise that Nutall opposed free money that would improve schools in her district. Micciche conceded that it was an experiment, but said “we’re experimenting by bringing extra resources to the table. We’re not experimenting by doing something bad to somebody. We’re trying to address the needs that have long gone unaddressed.”

Why would a trustee who “represents high schools that send thousands of young people straight to prison unable to read or write and without a prayer for decent life” decline such an offer, Schutze asked in a subsequent column. Now an opinion writer, Schutze spent decades reporting on Dallas and wrote a book, “The Accommodation,” which describes the handshake deals between Dallas’ black pastors and white business leaders as schools were desegregated.

“The elected leadership of southern Dallas is a remnant of the old ghetto over-class of segregation days,” Schutze wrote. “Because the civil rights movement never shook this town very hard, that leadership class, dominated by separatist clergy, still holds sway.”

ACTION: Board member is tossed out of school

Back in 2013, Schutze wrote, “The real enemies of these children are not white. They are black.” He reiterated this in a column last August following a vote in which Nutall, Blackburn and Trustee Joyce Foreman voted against a proposal that could have funneled up to $55 million into southern Dallas schools, mostly from taxes paid by northern Dallas residents.

Nutall, still reeling over Schutze’s accusations, agrees with him on at least one thing: “The civil rights movement never shook this town very hard.”

“Dallas never had a movement,” Nutall says. “Sometimes in movements, it creates cleansing. It creates people coming together. It creates the uncomfortable time to talk about the issues under the table, to understand, and then out of that can come great solutions.”

Because it never happened in Dallas, she says, “that history is still played out in the board table today. At the end of

the day, all of what’s going on in history ends up to one word: control.”

The 2014 “home rule” effort epitomized the business community’s attempt to control Dallas, Nutall believes. She’s not alone in this belief. The proposal was Morath’s idea to circumvent what he saw as school board dysfunction. Instead of less than 10 percent of voters electing representatives, he envisioned a system where some trustees would be appointed and any could be ejected if students were failing. Home rule was backed by many of the same people involved in education reform PACs.

“There is a group of people who feel they know what’s best versus it being a collaborative effort,” Nutall says.

One of her opponents in the upcoming May election, Ed Turner, calls home rule the moment he was “baptized in politics.” A graduate of the “great James Madison High School,” Turner had returned to his neighborhood as a community organizer and worked against home rule.

“The way it came about was kind-of

rushed, and people in our community do not appreciate anything that seems top-down. Things have to be grassroots,” Turner says.

Another of Nutall’s opponents this May, Justin Henry, was among the first reformers who block-walked for Micciche during the 2012 election. Henry considered Morath a friend. But the first time he heard about home rule was when he read the newspaper.

“The ripples it put out through our community, that one part of Dallas was trying to dictate what was best for us ... The trustee of District 2 still does not talk to the trustee of District 9,” Henry says of Morath and Nutall. “And the only thing that separates them is the Santa Fe Trail.”

Home rule was the turning point in the reform effort. Even supporters who believed in the merits of what it could do for schoolchildren regard it as a disaster and a reversal of progress.

The effort also had political consequences for reformers. While signatures were being collected for the home-rule

point of adding to it. She believes her job is to advocate for schools in her district by ensuring that they have the resources policy calls for.

This is a common criticism of Nutall — that her heavy-handed tactics in schools overstep her bounds as a board member. In the Dade situation, however, even her critics believed Miles had gone too far.

In 2015, Nutall ran for re-election and again faced Offord. This time, reformers endorsed and financed Offord, hoping to unseat their friend-turned-foe.

It didn’t work.

AERIAL SHOT: The trustee whose kids go to private school

“We are working against monolithic efforts to dismantle DISD under the guise of ‘reform,’ and those leading these efforts have power and money and are doing so for their personal gain. … Their work on a special interest agenda is hurting our children, particularly children who are the most vulnerable in our community.”

2015.

petition, reformers were trying to flip a seat in southern Dallas. But the $105,000 in campaign funds to Nutall’s opponent — which came mostly from northern Dallas zip codes, including $15,000 from Morath — couldn’t secure their candidate’s win.

Things got worse a few months later when, on Miles’ orders, security guards wrangled Nutall out of Billy Dade Middle School in her district. The superintendent was at the school for a staff meeting after a personnel shake-up. When Nutall showed up uninvited, he accused her of trespassing and interfering.

“You can’t throw an African-American woman out of an African-American school in South Dallas,” Henry says. “There’s nothing you’re going to get out of that that’s going to further our goals of getting opportunities for the schools, for the kids.”

Nutall doesn’t see her role on the board as a creator of policy. DISD has stacks of policies that aren’t followed or funded, she says, and she questions the

Thus read an email from Lori Kirkpatrick to her supporters on June 10, 2017, the day she faced Trustee Dustin Marshall in a runoff election. DISD District 2, which they were competing to represent, forms a doughnut around the Park Cities, looping through pockets of wealth in East Dallas, Preston Hollow, Oak Lawn and Uptown. East Dallas is a neighborhood where many people with the means to give their children a private education still choose public schools. It might seem like fertile soil for a movement that espouses using funding and research to provide the best outcomes for students. But it is also a hotbed of progressives, question-askers and city-hall barnstormers who don’t like to fall in line with the powers-that-be.

District 2 was Morath’s territory before Gov. Greg Abbott called him to Austin in late 2015 to serve as the Texas Education Agency Commissioner. Miles had thrown in the towel a few months earlier, and reformers’ hopes were dashed.

Desperate to hold onto Morath’s trustee seat, reformers mobilized behind Marshall and filled his coffers with $56,000 to finish the final year of Morath’s term.

If the strategy was to ward off contenders, it failed. Marshall ultimately raised five times as much as his fiercest competitor, Stonewall Jackson Elemen-

TEACHER ASSOCIATIONS tend to endorse and fund candidates who distance themselves from reformers. The exception is Dan Micciche, supported by both sides in

tary and Travis TAG parent Mita Havlick. She came up only 42 votes short in the runoff.

The close vote underscored voters’ suspicions of Marshall — why did his children attend private school at Greenhill, his alma mater, rather than Preston Hollow Elementary, the DISD school two blocks from his house? Why did he tout his experience on the board of Uplift Education, a charter school operator that draws from the same pool of tax money as DISD schools? And why were his campaign coffers allegedly full of “dark money” from real estate moguls, Park Cities zip codes and wealthy people who didn’t send their children to public schools?

Some wondered, what did this guy want with DISD?

Seven months later, Kirkpatrick attended a January DISD board meeting where trustees approved a resolution supporting more funds for public schools and opposing school vouchers or “any program that diverts public tax dollars to private entities.” The resolution also included a stance against Texas’ proposed A-F accountability system, created by Morath.

Marshall and Flores were the only two trustees to vote against the resolution, citing their hesitation to oust the grading system before it rolled out. Kirkpatrick left the meeting determined to run for office. Later in the campaign, she cited Marshall’s vote that day as proof of his support for vouchers.

Marshall bristled at this accusation during an interview before the 2017 election, countering that he had been involved in efforts to stop voucher legislation.

“I don’t know how I possibly could have been more clear about it,” he said. “To debate with me on an issue we agree about is disingenuous.”

Marshall insists that he’s a public education advocate, not attacker. He says he grew up with a single mother struggling to make ends meet and “was fortunate enough to get into Greenhill.”

“To be honest, I’m trying to create the same kind of educational outcomes that I enjoyed in Greenhill at DISD,” he says. “Every kid deserves that same kind of lift up and potential that I got and my kids get.”

But “change is hard,” Marshall says, and education is “a system that has resisted change for a long time” and has “fierce defenders of the status quo.”

“Most reformers I talk to prioritize student outcomes above any other motivation,” Marshall says. “The folks that prioritize evidence and results and data, we’re on the right path, and if we continue down that path, we’ll change a lot of lives, so we want to stay the course.”

Kirkpatrick, a Lakewood Elementary mom who says she’ll run again for the board in 2020, doesn’t buy it. Her campaign website continues to host the blog she launched when she decided to run. Each post questions and casts doubt on “the corporate education reform movement” that “promotes underfunding public education, A-F, vouchers [and] ultimately leads to the privatization of public education.”

Enough people agreed with Kirkpatrick or were given pause to cast more votes for her than for Marshall in the general election. If it weren’t for a disgruntled former DISD employee who filed to run — and who received 3 percent of votes despite no campaigning or fundraising — Marshall and the reform community might have lost outright.

Kirkpatrick and members of her campaign team recently launched a nonprofit, the Coalition for Equity in Public Education, to “stand up to privatizers currently threatening education as we know it.”

The problem isn’t a lack of knowing how schools and teachers are performing, Kirkpatrick argues. “Your outcomes for children are predicated on whether they’re wealthy or poor,” she says. The problem for urban schools, she believes, is poverty compounded by the underfunding of public education. The state spent $2.5 billion last year on charter schools, which are publicly funded but privately run, she says.

“What could we be doing with that money in failing schools?” she asks.

The people who need to be driving policy decisions are experienced educators, she says, not data wonks, business executives and Teach for America alumni with little classroom exposure.

MONTAGE: Young recruits get out the vote

The big money donors don’t bother John Hill. He’s one of the TFA alumni distrusted by people who distrust education reformers. He left DISD’s Pinkston High School after his two-year TFA contract and went to teach at Jesuit College Preparatory, his alma mater.

But Hill, like many TFA alumni, never left DISD.

During his tenure at Pinkston, he launched a blog and podcast, Turn and Talks. The content has segued from teacher musings to political activism as Hill heads up the Dallas Kids First “C.A.M.P.,” an eight-month fellowship for 20 or so young recruits who commit to spending 100 hours campaigning for the PAC’s endorsed candidates.

This, even more than money spent on mailers, polling and advertising, makes the reform effort a force.

Hill, who lives in Oak Cliff behind the Tyler-Vernon DART station, says his parents attended DISD high schools in the ’70s, during the early years of desegregation. His father graduated from South Oak Cliff, and his mother was among the first black students bussed to Carter. Hill would have attended Roosevelt, but “my parents, when they were making the decision to send me to school, didn’t have faith that DISD would be the right fit for me, which for me, as an adult, is super sad.”

His grandmother spent her career teaching at Marsalis Elementary School,

THE PRICE OF ADMISSION

A single Dallas ISD board candidate raised $246,722 last year — the highest amount for a race in DISD history. Yet only 12 percent of registered voters headed to the polls. With 11,302 ballots cast for the winning candidate, that translates to $21.83 per vote.

By comparison, all three trustee candidates ran unopposed in 2011. After that, two education PACs formed, collectively spending nearly $500,000 on board races over the next five years.

and her retirement savings paid for Hill’s Harvard education, so “I still have a lot I owe to the district,” he says.

Hill says he saw firsthand in 2016 that money doesn’t win elections. Only two of the four reform-funded candidates won their races, and one of those was Marshall’s runoff. He also felt deflated by the traditional model of campaigning — “show up six weeks out from an election and tell people you don’t know what’s good for them,” he says. Keeping voters engaged requires more, he believes, and C.A.M.P. is his solution to that problem.

Hill mobilized the C.A.M.P.ers, as he calls them, in the month between the District 2 general election and runoff between Marshall and Kirkpatrick last year. They spent 4,000 hours knocking on doors and talking to voters. According to Hill’s calculations, C.A.M.P.ers were responsible for 3,200 votes, including 900 people who hadn’t voted in any of the three prior elections with Marshall on the ballot.

The result: Marshall went from nearly 300 votes shy of Kirkpatrick in the general election to more than 3,000 votes ahead of her in the runoff.

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“My parents, when they were making the decision to send me to school, didn’t have faith that DISD would be the right fit for me, which for me, as an adult, is super sad.”

— John Hill, director of Dallas Kids First’s C.A.M.P. fellowship

CLOSE-UP: ‘The gray-haired one over here’

A trendy bar just south of Downtown seemed an unlikely setting for a political action committee to host its kick-off for the 2018 DISD board election cycle. The crowd of diverse young professionals who gathered at Mac’s Southside seemed even more unlikely.

Melissa Higginbotham, describing herself as “the gray-haired one over here,” stood out. She started working for the Dallas Kids First PAC when it formed in 2011 after her children graduated from Booker T. Washington and W.T. White.

“I was pleased with my children’s education in Dallas ISD, but I also read the Dallas Morning News and thought, ‘Wait, there are some areas where it might not be so good,’ ” she recalls. Though the PAC’s membership is broader than the crowd at Mac’s would suggest, she says, “it’s exciting for me to have folks who don’t have kids yet who are investing in our city and our school system, so that when they do, they feel comfortable putting their kids in DISD.”

Higginbotham chafes at Dallas Kids

First being identified as a PAC. It carries “somewhat of a negative perception,” she says. “But we did want to be able to

endorse candidates and come up with a system that shared more information about candidates and why they were endorsed. That just wasn’t happening [in 2011].”

They look for trustees who “are really seeking solutions,” Higginbotham says, and who support “things that have national research and national data behind them.”

Both Henry and Turner were at Mac’s Southside for the kick-off. Given the money the PAC has and the C.A.M.P.ers ready for action, an endorsement could be crucial.

Nutall didn’t attend the kick-off. No one, not even her, believes she will get the endorsement. At one point she found favor with reformers, but now she’s “in the outhouse,” she says, because she argued and didn’t always vote the way they wanted.

Without naming Nutall, Higginbotham notes that when Dallas Kids First interviews incumbents, “we ask them, ‘What policy initiative are you most proud of?’

“If they cannot answer that question right off the tip of their tongue, that’s hard for us.”

FLASH CUT: Race dominates a district race

As of press time, only one DISD trustee race was contested. Neither North Dallas’ Edwin Flores nor Far East Dallas’ Dan Micciche had drawn opposition.

In District 9, however, the race began last summer.

Henry, who filed to run against Nutall three years ago then withdrew, posted initial campaign donations last July, signaling that this time, he was serious. In September, Marshall introduced Turner to the invitation-only Dallas Breakfast Group, which functions as the incubator of northern Dallas politics. Then he and Flores endorsed Turner for the District 9 seat — despite the fact that the race was eight months away and Henry was sitting in the room.

The endorsement caught the attention of southern Dallas Trustee Joyce Foreman, who, in a Facebook post blasting Marshall for being “hateful” toward the three African-American trustees, also noted that “he has a hand-picked Negro that he is supporting” in the race against Nutall.

Foreman’s rant against Marshall was the result of Marshall’s repost of Schutze’s column, the headline claiming that “The Worst Enemies Poor Black Kids Have Are Black Dallas School Board Members.”

“How do people think black folks are going to even embrace you when you have a writer saying the three African-American trustees are Public Enemy No. 1 to black children?” Nutall asks.

“You don’t get the right to tell me how to respond when you mistreat me ... when you say whatever about me, and you say it in the newspaper, and you say it on Facebook,” she says. “It’s been some pretty ugly stuff. And then you want me to say, ‘Oh, can’t we all just get along?’ ”

Nutall believes her role is to fight for her community. The problem, both Henry and Turner believe, is that she no longer represents the community or its best interests.

They might not have entered the race if it weren’t for last August’s board vote on a tax-ratification election, which was the focus of Schutze’s instigating column. The election would have asked voters for a property tax increase with most of the money coming from north Dallas property owners and going to southern Dallas schools. Nutall, Foreman and Blackburn supported a small increase but rejected the larger tax hike reformers wanted.

“This was literally about ego, power and control,” Turner said after the vote, this time pointing the finger at the southern Dallas trustees rather than the north Dallas agenda he fought against during the home-rule effort. He’s moved past that debacle but others haven’t, he says.

“We have to decide to heal,” he says. “I think right now with the current board, it’s not going to happen. That’s why you have to have change. There’s too much divisiveness on the board, and you have to have someone that’s willing to work with everybody.”

Henry, too, saw the distrust rear its ugly head again. “To think that black trustees are sabotaging kids that they serve … I find that offensive in my most tolerant state. You’re substantiating those concerns and justifying their distrust,” Henry says.

Yet he’s frustrated that “they can’t see a good thing when it’s in front of them because they distrust each other. This gate keeping system is hurting District 9. It’s hurting the whole city.

“I think we have to use the past to inform every decision we make, but we shouldn’t let the past dictate the future.”

For the uncut version of “Dallas ISD: The Movie,” along with extras and behind-the-scenes action, visit oakcliff.advocatemag.com.

“Without a single vote cast, one-third of the board was sworn in.”

— Melissa Higginbotham, Dallas Kids First director of operations

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By BRENT MCDOUGAL

The difference one life can make

One of the kindest men I have ever been blessed to know was my barber, Ramon Gonzales. He passed away in January after a long career of cutting hair in Oak Cliff. Ramon loved people and had a knack for putting others at ease. I always felt and looked a little better after visiting him. He was quiet but always spoke with wisdom. Short but a giant in character.

There’s a word that comes to me when I remember Ramon: Faithful.

His shop had been sold years ago to another owner then sold again to a new, younger owner. Through all the changes, Ramon continued to cut hair in the same spot for 40 years.

On a Friday afternoon in the summer of 2013, I sat in Ramon’s chair for a regular appointment. The shop on Jefferson Boulevard was operating as usual when a man came in the back entrance. Out of his mind, he screamed and threatened to kill the new owner. Everyone froze. As the rant continued, however, the barbers went back to business.

“Ramon, we need to call the police,” I said. “This guy is dangerous.”

“Just ignore him,” he counseled. “He’s upset because he was fired yesterday. He’ll be gone soon.”

I asked for the phone and dialed 911 while Ramon continued to cut my hair. “You need to come immediately,” I said, hearing the fear in my own voice.

The officers arrived within just a few minutes, but as Ramon predicted, the man had gone already. The police said to call if he returned.

I left the shop without thinking anymore about the situation until I heard helicopters overhead.

Half an hour after my departure, the man returned and shot the new owner, 29-year-old Alejandro Fernandez, once in the chest, killing him with clippers in hand. Police captured 30-year-old

Charles DeWayne Hooks, who confessed, explaining his distress over not being able to provide for his family.

How did Ramon respond? After grieving and comforting others, he went back the next week to what he had always done: Cutting hair, blessing others, treating people with fairness.

What still jars me today is the contrast between Ramon’s gentle, steady presence and the reality of uncertainty and violence that we all know is closer than we want to believe.

The prophet Micah declared, “O peo-

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ple, the Lord has told you what is good, and this is what he requires of you: To do what is right, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God.” (Micah 6:8)

That describes Ramon. He walked in humility, did what was right and practiced mercy. His life emulated “good,” what many of us long to be. He was a light in the darkness. Eugene Peterson called such a life “a long obedience in the same direction.”

The faithful life is the consistent, trustworthy and reliable life. That’s rare today. Most of us don’t have the vision and stamina for that kind of singular pursuit. Thank God Ramon did. His life made a difference.

Brent McDougal is pastor of Cliff Temple Baptist Church. The Worship section is a regular feature underwritten by Advocate Publishing and by the neighborhood business people and churches listed on these pages. For information about helping support the Worship section, call 214.560.4202.

NON-DENOMINATIONAL

KESSLER COMMUNITY CHURCH / 2100 Leander Dr. at Hampton Rd. “Your Hometown Church Near the Heart of the City.”

10:30 am Contemporary Service / kesslercommunitychurch.com

SPECIAL ADVERTISING SECTION

The daily, small ways we serve others add up to significance

The faithful life is the consistent, trustworthy and reliable life. That’s rare today.

AC & HEAT

ELECTRICAL SERVICES

ANNA’S ELECTRIC Your Oak Cliff Electrician Since 1978. tecl25513. 214-943-4890

ANTHONY’S ELECTRIC Master Electrician. TECL24948 anthonyselectricofdallas.com

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Family Owned & Operated

Serving the Dallas area for over 30 years

We raise our kids here, too!

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APPLIANCE REPAIR

JESSE’S A/C & APPLIANCE SERVICE

TACLB13304C All Makes/Models. 214-660-8898

BUY/SELL/TRADE

CARS/TRUCKS WANTED!!! All Makes/Models. 2000-2016. Any Condition. Running Or Not. Top $$$ Paid. Free Towing. We’re Nationwide. Call Now 1-888-985-1806

GOT AN OLDER CAR, RV, BOAT? Do The Humane Thing. Donate It To The Humane Society. 1-855-558-3509

RANGERS, STARS & MAVS

Share front-row Texas Rangers, Stars & Mavs seats. Tickets are available in sets of 10 games (sets of 2 or 4 tickets per game available). Participants randomly draw numbers prior to season to determine a draft order fair to everyone. Call 214-560-4212 or rwamre@advocatemag.com

CABINETRY & FURNITURE

JD’S TREE SERVICE Mantels, Headboards, Kitchen Islands, Dining tables. Made from Local Trees. www.jdtreeservice.com 214-946-7138

CLASSES/TUTORING/LESSONS

PIANO/MUSIC LESSONS. TRY IT FOR FREE 30 Yrs. Exp. Call Tim 214-989-7093

CLEANING SERVICES

CINDY’S HOUSE CLEANING 15 yrs exp. Resd/Com. Refs. Dependable. 214-490-0133

FATHER, SON, GRANDSON Window Cleaning. Free Est. Derek. 682-716-9892

WINDOW MAN WINDOW CLEANING.COM

Residential Specialists. BBB. 214-718-3134

CONCRETE/MASONRY/PAVING

BRICK, BLOCK, Stone, Concrete, Stucco. Gonzalez Masonry. 214-395-1319

CONCRETE, Driveway Specialist Repairs, Replacement, Removal, References. Reasonable. Chris 214-770-5001

TH ELECTRIC Reasonable Rates. Licensed & Insured. Ted. E257 214-808-3658

EMPLOYMENT

AIRLINE MECHANIC TRAINING Get FAA certified. Approved for military benefits. Financial aid if qualified. Job placement assistance. Aviation Institute of Maintenance 866-453-6204

AVON AGENTS WANTED StartAvon.com. Reference Code; CHASKIN

EXTERIOR CLEANING

G&G DEMOLITION Tear downs, Haul. Interior/Exterior. 214-808-8925

FENCING & DECKS

AMBASSADOR FENCE INC. EST.96

Automatic Gates, Fences/Decks Ambassadorfenceco.com 214-621-3217

FENCING & WOODWORK oldgatefence.com . 214-766-6422

HANNAWOODWORKS.COM

Decks, Pergolas, Patio Covers. 214-435-9574

WOODMASTER CARPENTRY 214-507-9322

Quality Wood Fences & Decks. New or Repair.

Northlake Fence and Deck

Locally owned and operated by the Mccaffrey family since1980

214-349-9132

www northlakefence.com

FLOORING & CARPETING

FENN CONSTRUCTION Manufactored hardwoods. Stone and Tile. Back-splash Specials. 214-343-4645

WILLEFORD HARDWOOD FLOORS

214-824-1166 • WillefordHardwoodFloors.com

GARAGE SERVICES

IDEAL GARAGE DOORS • 972-757-5016

Install & Repair. 10% off to military/1st responders.

UNITED GARAGE DOORS AND GATES Res/Com. Locally Owned. 214-826-8096

GLASS, WINDOWS & DOORS

PRO WINDOW CLEANING prompt, dependable. Matt 214-766-2183

ROCK GLASS CO Replace, repair: windows, mirrors, showers, screens. 214-837-7829

HANDYMAN SERVICES

HANDY DAN The Handyman. ToDo’s Done Right. handy-dan.com 214-252-1628

HANDYMAN SPECIALIST Residential/ Commercial. Large, small jobs, repair list, renovations. Refs. 214-489-0635

HOME REPAIR HANDYMAN Small/Big Jobs + Construction. 30 Yrs. Exp. Steve. 214-875-1127

HOMETOWN HANDYMAN All phases of construction. No job too small 214-327-4606

HONEST, SKILLED SERVICE With a Smile. General Repairs/ Maintenance. 214-215-2582

ONE CALL WEEKEND SERVICES

Handyman Services Offered.469-658-9163

Handyman, Contractor, Engineer

Your Home Repair Specialists

Drywall Doors

Senior Safety

Carpentry

KITCHEN/BATH/TILE/GROUT

• Tubs, Tiles or Sinks

• Cultured Marble

• Kitchen Countertops

214-631-8719

WE REFINISH! www.allsurfacerefinishing.com

LAWNS, GARDENS & TREES

A BETTER TREE MAN Trims, Removals, Insd. 12 Yrs Exp. Roberts Tree Service. 214-808-8925

DALLAS GROUNDSKEEPER Organic Lawn Maintenance designed to meet your needs. 214-471-5723 dallasgroundskeeper.com

HOLMAN IRRIGATION

Sprinkler & Valve Repair/ Rebuild Older Systems. Lic. #1742. 214-398-8061

IRISH RAIN SPRINKLER SYSTEMS TXL#2738 Repair, Stonework & Drains 214-827-7446

Small & Odd Jobs And More! 972-308-6035

HandymanMatters.com/dallas

Bonded & Insured. Locally owned & operated.

HOME SECURITY

SAFES For Guns, Home or Business. We Offer a Large Selection Plus Consultation & In-Home Delivery. Visit Our Showroom. 972-272-9788 thesafecompany.com

HOUSE PAINTING

RAMON’S INT/EXT PAINT Sheetrock, Repairs. 214-679-4513

KITCHEN/BATH/TILE/GROUT

BLAKE CONSTRUCTION CONCEPTS LLC

Complete Kitchen And Bath Remodels. Tile, Granite, Marble, Travertine, Slate. Insured. 214-563-5035 www.blake-construction.com

FENN CONSTRUCTION Full Service Contractor. dallastileman.com 214-343-4645

STONE AGE COUNTER TOPS

Granite, Quartz, Marble For Kitchen/Bath-Free Est. stoneage.brandee@gmail.com 940-465-6980

TK REMODELING 972-533-2872

Complete Full Service Repairs, Remodeling, Restoration. Name It — We do it. Tommy. Insured. dallas.tkremodelingcontractors.com

MAYA TREE SERVICE Tree Trim/Remove. Lawn Maintenance. Resd/ Commcl.Insd. CC’s Accptd. mayatreeservice.com 214-924-7058 214-770-2435

JD’s Tree Service

RESPONSIBLE TREE CARE FOR THE ENVIRONMENT

Locally harvested wood!

Firewood/Cooking Wood Full service trimming & planting of native trees. 214.946.7138

LEGAL SERVICES

A WILL? THERE IS A WAY! Estate/Probate matters.maryglennattorney.com 214-802-6768

MORTGAGE SERVICES

NEED A PURCHASE, REFIANCE Or Renovation Home Loan? Call Pat Nagler, PrimeLending Sr. Loan Officer (NMLS: 184376) 214-402-4019 for all your mortgage needs.

MOVING

AM MOVING COMPANY Specialty Moving & Delivery. 469-278-2304 ammovingcompany.com

PEST CONTROL

A BETTER EARTH PEST CONTROL Keeping the environment, kids, pets in mind. Organic products avail. 972-564-2495

MCDANIEL PEST CONTROL

Prices Start at $85 + Tax For General Treatment.

Average Home-Interior/Exterior & Attached Garage. Quotes For Other Services. 214-328-2847. Lakewood Resident

PET SERVICES

BRUNO’S PLACE A d-i-y dog wash in Oak Cliff. Variety of Cowboys apparel & more. 262-427-8667

THE PET DIVAS Pet Sitting, Daily Dog Walks, In Home/Overnight Stays.Basic Obedience Training. thepetdivas.com 817-793-2885. Insured

PLUMBING

AC PLUMBING Repairs, Fixtures, Senior Discounts. Gary Campbell. 214-321-5943

M&S PLUMBING Quality Work & Prompt Service. Jerry. 214-235-2172. lic.#M-11523

NTX PLUMBING SPEC. LLLP 214-226-0913

Lic. M-40581 Res/Com. Repairs & Leak Location

THE PLUMBING MANN LLC

All Plumbing! Since 1978. Family Owned. RMP/Master-14240 Insured. 214-FAST-FIX/ 214-327-8349

POOLS

CERULEAN POOL SERVICES Family Owned/ Operated. Weekly maintenance, Chemicals, parts & repairs. CeruleanPro.com 214-557-6996

LEAFCHASERS POOL SERVICE Parts/Service. Chemicals/Repairs. Jonathan. 214-729-3311

REMODELING

BLAKE CONSTRUCTION CONCEPTS, LLC

Complete Remodeling, Kitchens, Baths, Additions. Hardie Siding & Replacement Windows. Build On Your Own Lot. Insured. www.blake-construction.com 214-563-5035

FENN CONSTRUCTION Full Service Contractor. dallastileman.com 214-343-4645

O’BRIEN GROUP INC. Remodeling Dallas For Over 17 Years www.ObrienGroupInc.com 214-341-1448

RENOVATE DALLAS renovatedallas.com 214-403-7247

REMODELING

REMODELING

SERVICES FOR YOU

• Turnkey Renovations

• Kitchens

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• Floors

• Windows

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Top ways to transition your mind from winter to spring. Spring is ready to break through with its beautiful blooms. Spruce up your body and life with these tips for spring.

1) Look out for your liver — The liver is one of the most important organs for renewing, cleansing and energizing the body. The liver is related to your ability to plan ahead.

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3) Spring clean — It is as important to spring clean your house as it is your body. Donate unwanted clutter, move out big furniture and deep clean forgotten corners.

4) Come out of hibernation — In winter we tend to retreat to our warm homes. Spring is the time to open the windows and get some fresh air. Here’s to a healthy, prosperous spring.

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SKYLIGHTS

REMODELING

Bob McDonald Company, Inc. BUILDERS/REMODELERS

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ROOFING

&

GUTTERS

BERT ROOFING INC.

Family owned and operated for over 40 years • Residential/Commercial • Over 30,000 roofs completed • Seven NTRCA “Golden Hammer” Awards • Free Estimates www.bertroofing.com 214.321.9341

Full gospel publishing

The Stamps-Baxter Music Co. produced some of the nation’s most popular gospel songbooks

By RACHEL STONE

An Oak Cliff publisher touched millions of protestant churchgoers in America in the 1930s and ’40s.

The Stamps-Baxter Music Co. published songbooks and hymnals from its headquarters on North Tyler Street for decades, popularizing tunes such as “Farther Along” and “Just a Little Talk with Jesus.”

The company’s influence spread with broadcasts on KRLD and via singing quartets they dispatched to county fairs, churches and revivals all over the country.

“This was like music central of Oak Cliff,” says David Spence, whose com -

pany, Good Space, recently renovated the former Stamps-Baxter Music Co. building at 207-209 N. Tyler for retail and office space.

Also on the block were the original Top Ten Records location, Wilkins Music Store, a piano studio and a rival music publisher to Stamps-Baxter.

The building was constructed around 1922, and Stamps-Baxter bought it in 1936.

Virgil O. Stamps and J.R. Baxter Jr. worked for competing gospel-music publishing houses when they became partners in the 1920s. By 1929, they had

moved their company to Dallas from Jacksonville, Texas.

Stamps, who lived on North Windomere Avenue, was the face of the company. He was a big guy, standing about 6-foot-4, with a charismatic personality.

“By all accounts, if he had wanted to run for governor of Texas, he would’ve had it in the bag,” Spence says. “He was an entrepreneurial genius and a largerthan-life guy.”

The company published four new songbooks every year, and they sponsored singing quartets to promote them. In its heyday, Stamps-Baxter had 34

quartets traveling the country.

The Stamps-Baxter quartet performed gospel songs inside glass recording booths at the 1936 Texas Centennial, which prompted KRLD to invite them to perform on-air.

The radio station stipulated that the quartets could only sing patriotic and popular songs, no gospel. Stamps agreed, but when the recording light came on, the quartet began singing a gospel number.

“They said something along the lines of, ‘If you like these songs, send KRLD a telegram,’ ” Spence says.

The radio station received thousands of telegrams asking for more gospel music. The Stamps-Baxter quartet was so popular that it helped the radio station increase its reach from 10,000 watts to 50,000 watts, and KRLD became a hub for gospel music up through the 1960s.

Broadcasting rules at the time required the station to keep the signal local, but after midnight, they were allowed to turn up their wattage and broadcast nationwide. Stamps capitalized on this with all-night gospel singing live from Dallas, Texas. In June 1940, he filled the Sportatorium with 7,500 people, who sang along with the Stamps-Baxter quartet from 11 p.m. to 7 a.m. He also filled the Cotton Bowl for these “all-night sings.”

Another facet of the Stamps-Baxter marketing was a music school. Church choir leaders and music students came from all over the United States to attend the two-week Stamps-Baxter Music

School in Oak Cliff. The school taught “shape notes,” a less complicated system of reading music that’s designed for community singing. The school cost $6, and room and board cost $7.

In 1927, the same year Stamps-Baxter was founded, was the first year that the U.S. Census reported that more Americans lived in cities than in rural areas.

“Those small-town Southern people who moved to the big city, that was their target market,” Spence says.

Imagine how many baby-faced Christian singers arrived by streetcar in Oak Cliff on their first trip away from home.

V.O. Stamps died in 1941.

His partner took over, and Stamps-

Baxter was run by J.R. “Pap” and his wife, “Ma” Baxter until Pap died in 1968 and Ma in ’72.

The company held on until 1987, but its glory days had ended by the start of the TV era.

Spence, who renovated the Stamps-Baxter building with partner Trey Bartosh, had the company’s old-fashioned logo painted on the side of the building.

The second story is finished out to serve an office tenant, such as a small law firm. But for the ground-floor space, Spence envisions a gallery or perhaps some kind of retail/manufacturer.

Stamps-Baxter had a storefront with a printing press and bookbinding operation on the ground floor, plus offices and music rooms upstairs.

Retail, light manufacturing, artists, entrepreneurs … Some things never change.

Spence notes, “Isn’t that just what everybody is doing in Oak Cliff now?”

Opposite page: The recently renovated Stamps-Baxter building with the old-fashioned logo newly painted.

Left: V.O. Stamps and a StampsBaxter songbook produced for the Texas Centennial celebration in 1936.

“Those small-town Southern people who moved to the big city, that was their target market”