The Park Board approved the changes last month, which will take place inside the city-owned fairgrounds. John Jenkins, the park department director, said the organization that requested the new signs will pay for them. Former state Rep. Helen Giddings originally requested the name changes as a chair of the 50th anniversary celebration for the African American Museum.
“It’s definitely appropriate of the city to recognize two African Americans and to recognize the diversity that has contributed to the city over the years,” Jenkins said.
Without Robinson, there wouldn’t be a museum. Without Knight, the museum wouldn’t be at Fair Park, Giddings said, adding that the impact of the signs will go beyond honoring the two men.
“They will tell future generations that leadership matters, that vision matters and legacy matters,” she said.
Robinson retired from the African American Museum in 2025, more than 50 years after its founding at Bishop College. When the college closed, the museum moved to a new building at Fair Park. The site has garnered national attention, including visits from celebrities like Maya Angelou, and recently celebrated millions in improvements ahead of FIFA World Cup festivities.
The museum holds decades of history, from photos of Deep Ellum and folk art to relics from Freedman’s Cemetery, a Black burial ground partially destroyed in the creation of Central Expressway.
Knight became Dallas’ first Black city manager in 1986. At City Hall, he was known as “Mr. Fix-it,” serving as assistant city manager for four years before he took the lead role.
During his tenure as city manager, Knight oversaw the completion of the Meyerson Symphony Center and the expansions of the Cotton Bowl in Fair Park and the Dallas Convention Center, which was later renamed after former U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison.
As he was leaving the role in 1990, Knight was credited with guiding Dallas through its toughest economic period. He gained a reputation for hiring and promoting people of color in City Hall, and helping to repair relationships between the police department and the city’s communities of color.
Knight died in 2021 at 76. His son, Marcus, has said the process for renaming started after his father died, adding that his family would consider it an honor for Knight to be remembered at Fair Park.
This reporting is part of the Future of North Texas, a community-funded journalism initiative supported by the Commit Partnership, Communities Foundation of Texas, The Dallas Foundation, the Dallas Mavericks, the Dallas Regional Chamber, Deedie Rose, Lisa and Charles Siegel, the McCune-Losinger Family Fund, The Meadows Foundation, the Perot Foundation, the United Way of Metropolitan Dallas and the University of Texas at Dallas. The News retains full editorial control of this coverage.