As you travel down Hwy 75 North to Exit 4B, you cannot help but notice Caruth Haven. Dallas historians made a permanent mark of the old Caruth family and its plantations. But the story of a little Black boy born on February 12, 1862, to a Black woman and a White worker has, to this point, been less notable.
A full 11 months before the Emancipation Proclamation would become law Marcellus Clayton Cooper came into the world. America declared freedom in January 1862, but it would be June 19, 1865, before Texas recognized Abraham Lincoln’s decree. Texas has a long and storied tradition of denying the civil rights of its non-white citizens.
Cooper spent his childhood on the Caruth Farm, matriculating at public schools in East Dallas. These segregated campuses were near Black settlements around White Rock Lake. Sometime during his teens, he moved to Springfield, Missouri, to live with his father. While in Springfield, he finished high school and later moved back to Dallas.
A Dallas Morning News article published on September 29, 1891, stated that Sanger employees gave Cooper “a gold-headed cane in token of their appreciation on the eve of his departure” to attend dental school. Cooper left Sanger Brothers Company and moved to Tennessee to study at the Meharry Medical School in Nashville, the first medical school in the South for Blacks.
M.C. Cooper became the first Black dentist in Texas at age 34 and opened an office on Commerce Street. Cooper was active in his community and continually supported Black organizations and establishments. He was a member of the Dallas Black Chamber of Commerce and invested in the Lewis Dry Goods Store, the first Black-owned downtown department store.
He also helped establish Penny Savings Bank, the first African American bank in Dallas, and he served as a Superintendent of Sunday School at Bethel A.M.E. Church. His final practice location was in the Knights of Pythias Temple in Deep Ellum.
The M.C. Cooper Dental Society, founded in Dallas in 1954, is named in Dr. Cooper’s honor, as is Cooper Street in South Dallas. Cooper died in 1929 And now Texas A&M has named a free dental clinic at 4570 Scyene Road in South Dallas, for Dr. Cooper. Texas A&M highlights his accomplishments in a recent article.
“Whether it’s undergraduates in College Station or advanced dental students in Dallas, Aggies will always be there to help our fellow Texans,” Chancellor John Sharp said. “Dr. Cooper’s legacy continues to thrive within our dental students. I know they would have made him proud.”
The clinic is a product of funds from a $2.4 million anonymous donation, along with an additional $2 million endowment that will help pay for operating expenses. The Delta Dental Foundation provided equipment through a $780,000 donation.
The College of Dentistry will work with Frazier Revitalization, Parkland Health & Hospital System, the City of Dallas, and the Dallas Independent School District to develop and coordinate services. Outreach will include mentoring high
school students interested in dental careers.”
In his keynote address to the nation in 1963, Dr. King foretold this day. He said, “I have a dream that one day the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit together at the table of brotherhood.”
We can be proud that today, you can leave the Caruth Haven exit, head South on Highway 75, drive 11.2 miles and see the newest marker in Dallas’ history. The slave owner and former slave have never sat together in life, but they will in perpetuity.
That may not mean much to most, but to the young African American woman, a former basketball player, who gave the keynote address at the dedication of the Dr. M.C. Cooper Dental Center, recently.
She will graduate this summer as a dentist and that’s a real big deal. Paris Webb has a promising future ahead, and so do the residents of South Dallas.
Vincent L. Hall is an author, activist, and award-winning columnist.
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