Today I learned that the State Fair of Texas was segregated for nearly a hundred years to some extent and used to have a “N*gro Achievement Day” which was the only day black Americans were allowed into the fair. It also had segregated restaurants and attractions into the 50s, and they’ve had both a Ku Klux Klan day and in the 80s a day dedicated to the confederacy. Furthermore, in the 60s there was a deliberate and concerted effort to buy up black owned homes and businesses near the fairgrounds
2/ at cheap prices under eminent domain and turn them into parking lots with big fences and bright lights allegedly because white fairgoers were afraid of the black residents of the neighborhood. This led to economic destruction of the neighborhood and an increase in poverty and homelessness which continues today. Fuck the State Fair of Texas.
Yeah, I lived for a year not far from the fairgrounds in Oak Cliff. You can absolutely feel the impact of the fair destroying the neighborhood... and the city basically abandoning the area.