Graffiti News

A three-day restoration followed four years of organizing

Dallas’ Five Mile community completed the restoration of its Lancaster Road mural on October 18, 2026, after three days of painting by residents, students and artist Lakeem Wilson. According to The Dallas Morning News, the work refreshed a horse, a creek and a small schoolhouse on a concrete wall in the 5700 block of Lancaster Road.

The Five Mile Neighborhood Association spent four years organizing the restoration. Association president Felicia Sewell described a community that had experienced decades of neglect. For residents, restoring the wall meant keeping a neighborhood’s account of its past visible in the street. The faded images carried stories that the association wanted to preserve.

Wilson, a South Dallas native living in Oak Cliff, coordinated schedules with University of North Texas at Dallas students, ordered paint and chose colors. He is an associate curator at the African American Museum in Dallas and the founder of NaturalBorn Studios. His earlier public art includes a South Dallas tribute to civil rights activist Juanita Craft.

The mural became a way to identify the neighborhood

The original mural was created in 2017 after attempts to install a Five Mile welcome sign failed. According to the neighborhood association, efforts to place a sign on private land or Texas Department of Transportation property were unsuccessful. Former Dallas City Council member Erik Wilson, who represented District 8, helped secure the Lancaster Road wall.

That origin gives the painting a particular role in the streetscape. It provides a place for the community to identify itself and present its history to people passing through. Restoring the images renews that function, allowing the same wall to continue carrying local stories.

The organizing also extended beyond the painters. Association secretary Zina Ashford helped coordinate volunteers and supplies. She told the newspaper that Texas state Sen. Royce West connected organizers with partners who supplied paint and other materials. The restoration depended on that practical work as well as the hours spent applying color.

Landownership and a segregated school shape the story

Five Mile’s history includes formerly enslaved people buying land and building a farming community after emancipation. The Dallas Morning News cited the Dallas Park and Recreation Department’s account linking Miller Family Park to a roughly 600-acre tract purchased by six formerly enslaved people. John Miller bought a portion of the land in 1874.

For Ashford, the change from plantation land to property owned by formerly enslaved people is central to Five Mile’s identity. The association also connects the neighborhood’s name, through family tradition, to a location approximately five miles from William B. Miller’s plantation house. That explanation is a community tradition, rather than a newly established finding from the restoration.

The schoolhouse in the mural represents Lisbon Colored School, which Black children attended during segregation. Wilson said the project introduced him to local history he had not known, including the community’s early schools. Even an artist experienced in depicting Dallas history found something to learn while working on the wall.

University of North Texas at Dallas criminal justice student Alissia Richard, who lives in Garland, discovered the volunteering opportunity through a student engagement email. Painting beside residents gave her a chance to hear the stories behind the landmarks. Her experience shows how the work of maintaining a mural can also become an occasion for sharing knowledge.

Lancaster Road offers a visible encounter with local history

The restored mural can be located along the 5700 block of Lancaster Road in southern Dallas. For people following public art, the horse, creek and schoolhouse offer useful starting points for reading the wall: rural life, a local landscape and education are all part of the community’s account of itself. Wilson hoped the images would prompt passersby to ask about the places depicted.

The restoration is separate from efforts to obtain a historical marker for the wider Five Mile community. According to the newspaper, the Texas Historical Commission designated Tarver Cemetery on Persimmon Road as a Historic Texas Cemetery in September 2025. A broader community marker remained a goal, with timing dependent on the commission.

Keeping that distinction clear matters when viewing the mural. The restored wall is a community preservation project with its own history, while the proposed marker follows a separate process. Together, the stories residents choose to preserve help explain why maintaining an existing mural can matter as much as commissioning a new one. Explore other public artworks through Wallscape’s map.

Source: The Dallas Morning News