For decades, Candace Wicks has seen the good the Martin Luther King, Jr. Community Center can do.
Some of her first memories of the 10.5-acre South Dallas campus are volunteering with her church to hand out free meals to the area’s unsheltered community — a service she says is “just one of the many” examples of the center’s critical work.
But she said she has watched the center also make do with limited resources.
“I like to say — and it has been quoted several times — that ‘we make bricks out of straw’ here,” said Wicks, a vice chair appointed to the center’s advisory board, which she has served on for nearly 10 years. “This is one of the most underappreciated locations in the city.”
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Wicks thinks that is starting to change: On Thursday, she joined a crowd on the campus to celebrate a $2.5 million earmark to benefit the center — federal funding that will go toward improving the facility and kickstart work before a forthcoming renovation approved by Dallas voters this spring as part of a $1.25 billion bond package.
The campus, originally called the Crossroads Community Center, opened its doors in February 1969 as the city’s first multi-service community facility. The Dallas City Council renamed the facility after Martin Luther King, Jr. in 1975.
Since then, the center has become a hub for services and educational and cultural enrichment in South Dallas. It was the venue for nearly 30 events and hosted nearly 200,000 visitors last year, according to a report from the center’s advisory board.
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U.S. Rep. Jasmine Crockett, D-Dallas, paved the way for the $2.5 million earmark. The earmark to the South Dallas center was the largest allocation the first-term representative directed as part of the fiscal year 2024 Appropriations Bill.
Crockett, whose district includes South Dallas, said her office received requests for more than 70 projects seeking funding in fiscal year 2024. Her staff reviewed the proposals and made recommendations based on the parameters set by the Republican-led House.
Deputy Mayor Pro Tem Adam Bazaldua (left) reacts towards towards Rep. Jasmine Crockett, D-Texas, during an event, on Thursday, Oct. 3, 2024, at Martin Luther King, Jr. Community Center in Dallas. Rep. Crockett presented a check representing $2.5 million to Martin Luther King, Jr. Community Center in Dallas as part of the Community Project Funding her office secured within the Appropriations process for Fiscal Year 2024.(Shafkat Anowar / Staff Photographer)
The bill passed earlier this year.
“I looked for spaces in which I felt, ‘if we don’t do this, I don’t know that this gap will get filled,’” Crockett said in an interview. “The MLK center is kind of one of those that falls into a bit of a unique category … I was concerned the gap may not get filled.”
Wick said that upcoming improvements to the center include accessibility enhancements.
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Nearly four years ago, Wicks fell ill with a life-threatening sickness that resulted in sepsis. She survived, but the harsh treatments took a toll on her body. She now uses an electric wheelchair — something that has changed her perspective using the center.
“Not to say that I wasn’t already aware, but it’s changed how I view it,” she said. She added that she saw the $2.5 million earmark as “a prayer answered.”
Deputy Mayor Pro Tem Adam Bazaldua, who represents District 7, where the center is located, described the earmark as “more than an investment in a building.”
“It’s an investment in the future of South Dallas,” he said.
Leadership teacher becomes a leader: UNT professor is Sunnyvale’s first Black councilman
George Woodrow has lived in Sunnyvale for 24 years and said he ran, in part, because he wanted African American community members to be represented.
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As Texas flirts with high-speed rail, can Japan’s bullet train show the way?
A July trade delegation led by Gov. Greg Abbott hopped aboard a bullet train for a fast trip to Tokyo, feeding the appetite for high-speed rail for some Texans.
We knew coming into Thursday that the Cowboys would be on the road to take on the New York Giants in the season opener on Sunday Night Football, that Dallas is “hosting” the Baltimore Ravens in Brazil in Week 3, and that the Philadelphia Eagles would be in town for Thanksgiving Day. Now we know it all.
Among the first things that jump to mind is that bye week is late. Dallas isn’t on bye until Week 14, the Sunday of that week is December 13th for full perspective.
The Cowboys also only play twice in their own building, thanks to the Brazil game, before November. Sometimes those weird quirks show up in schedules and this is certainly one of them.
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It is interesting to see that the NFL gave Dallas the longest amount of rest possible after their Thanksgiving tilt. It hasn’t been uncommon for the league to have the Cowboys play on consecutive Thursdays, but perhaps that is a thing of the past.
A portion of South Lamar Street was officially renamed Botham Jean Boulevard in 2021.
Flashit Photography
On Wednesday, the Dallas City Council approved funding that will replace highway exit signs and road signs marking Lamar Street with new signage honoring Botham Jean, the 26-year-old Dallas accountant who was fatally shot in his own apartment by an off-duty Dallas police officer in 2018.
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The $180,500 in funding for 13 signs to be installed by the Texas Department of Transportation is the final step in the street renaming that was unanimously approved by the council in 2021. The new signs will be placed at exits along Interstate 45, State Highway 310 and U.S. Highway 175.
Already, Botham Jean Boulevard signs run along the road in the Cedars, where Jean lived before he was killed.
“This street on which he chose to live and the street on which he died can serve as a lasting memory of the upstanding resident who loved Dallas so much,” his mother, Allison Jean, told the council in 2021.
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Jean was shot by Amber Guyger, a Dallas police officer, after she entered his apartment believing it was her own. A Dallas jury found Guyger guilty of murder in 2019 and sentenced her to 10 years in prison. She has also been ordered to pay the Jean family nearly $100 million in a civil trial, which accused her of using excessive force.
The Jean family is seeking restitution from the city of Dallas because they argue that Dallas, as Guyger’s former employer, had a duty to defend Guyger and pay out claims brought against her. The Jean family filed suit against the city in April of this year.
On Wednesday, city council member Adam Bazaldua stated that the continued remembrance of Jean’s name is a reminder that “no one is above the law.”
“This has never simply been about changing street signs; it has always been about commemorating a life that was taken too soon,” said Bazaldua. “When driving down Botham Jean Boulevard, we are reminded of the thousands of lives lost across the country each year to senseless gun violence.”
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Bazaldua said that once city leaders were made aware that some signs from the initial 2021 street name change had not materialized, the horseshoe took steps to correct the oversight “somewhat promptly.” But he acknowledged that Wednesday’s funding came on the heels of community advocacy urging the project’s completion.
Community leader Yafeuh Balogun said his organization, Community Movement Builders, began asking the city for the updated signs in September 2025. Addressing the council ahead of Wednesday’s vote, Balogun encouraged the horseshoe to vote in favor of the funds because it “would make no sense” to not follow through with the street renaming approved years ago.
“I think this is very powerful simply because driving here today, I still saw the Lamar Street Signs,” Balogun said. “I remember how powerful it was back in 2021 when the city council voted to rename Lamar Street to Botham Jean. I’d like to keep that legacy going.”
We’re less than a month out from the start of the 2026 FIFA World Cup, and North Texans volunteering in the event have received their uniforms. FOX 4’s Peyton Yager has more on that and the new hospitality tickets released today.
