By Karina Dunn
History is often closer than one might think.
The name change of Dallas’ College Park to Fahim J Minkah Community Park was made official with the installation of a new park sign.
In a March ceremony, the Minkah family, along with officials from Dallas’ Parks and Recreation Department, unveiled the new sign bearing Fahim J Minkah’s name.
Sloan Anderson King, interim manager for Dallas Service Area 2, spoke first during the commemorative ceremony.
“Today we do more than just dedicate a park sign,” King said. “We remember a man who left a legacy on this community. A legacy not built with money or titles but built with sacrifice, service and unwavering love of people.”
For the family and community members, the sign installation represents an opportunity to uplift the legacies of advocates native to their Highlands Hill neighborhood.
Lori Blair serves as the representative for Dallas’ District 8. She also addressed the importance of history.
“Every time someone comes here they are stepping into part of Mr. Fahim’s legacy,” Blair said.
Minkah served the community in several different capacities.
He joined the Black Panthers for Self Defense as a college student and continued his organizing efforts into adulthood. He founded African American Men Against Narcotics to combat the presence of drugs in his neighborhood.
Minkah also founded Southern Skates. The skating rink aimed to provide young people in Highland Hills with a safe place to gather and to enjoy leisure.
Geneva Minkah Brown maintained a close relationship with her father. She remembered protesting drugs within the community as a 6-year-old and the importance of the skating rink to both her family and to the immediate neighborhood.
According to Brown, her father founded Southern Skates due to an access issue. Members of Highland Hills could only reach Red Bird Skateland by bus, not always a convenient option. Southern Skates was meant to be a local solution for safe recreation activities.
“He was a daddy to the community,” Brown said. “He was a role model.”
Brown detailed her experience of grief on learning her father died. She had spoken to him earlier in the day. The last time she saw him, he was supporting his grandson during a track meet. Brown said she pushed through the grief to see the payoff of the city’s recognition of her father’s hard work. The family plans to continue remembrance efforts to honor Fahim Minkah and to build on his legacy.
Brown said she and Minkah’s grandson aim to “get the rink back”, and they want the help of the Dallas Park and Recreations Department.
Community members familiar with the lobbying efforts for the new park sign said push back was common, but it did not deter them.
Marcus Russel, a robotics teacher for Dallas College and leader in Commissaries Very Necessary, was proud to see the results of their consistent efforts.
“Three years of getting signatures, standing out on the street corners, helping [Community Movement Builders] throw events, going to park board meetings and speaking, grabbing Reverend Johnson, even when they turned us down and they got rid of the vote we still fought, we still went back, they put it back on,” Russel said. “It means everything to us because we follow his lead. “Everything [Minkah’s] done, we do now in this community, whether it’s community patrols in this community, whether its bus meetings… it is the community working for community and the community honoring Fahim Minkah for what he did for this community.”
Like Minkah’s efforts to found Southern Skates, the project to support his legacy required negotiation, patience and steadfast desire to see the goal accomplished.
“We all had the same concept,” said Akintunde Funso, a member of Dallas’ original Black Panther party. “We weren’t called to glory. We were called to serve. We have some young brothas.. we have a new generation with Community Movement Builders, Guerilla mainframe, and they’re carrying the struggle on.”
Eric Khafre, chairman of Guerilla Mainframe and member of Community Movement Builders, echoed Funso’s sentiments for the next generation.
“We believe in honoring and building institutions in our community named after the people who put in real work, not just some celebrity or someone who’s white… somebody who actually paid attention to what was going on in the community who made that community for most of their life,” Khafre said. “Community Movement Builders focus on the practice of self determination, community building, agriculture and the Malcom X academy, sharing the history, mutual aid… we take it upon ourselves to do what we need to do.”
