Updated: 6:38 PM CST February 9, 2021
DALLAS No matter the roadblocks or reasons she shouldn t have been able to, Juanita Craft lived a life built around bringing equality for the Black community in Dallas.
Craft was not only the first Black woman in Dallas County to vote in a public election, but she also served more than 50 years with the Dallas chapter of the NAACP.
Early life
Juanita Jewel Shanks Craft was born in February of 1902.
While she was a granddaughter of slaves, Craft was an only child of schoolteachers David Sylvestus and Eliza Balfour Shanks.
Credit: Juanita Craft
Her mother, Shanks, died from tuberculosis after being refused treatment because there were no state hospitals for Black Texans.