Future memorial park to honor Fred Rouse at site of 1921 lynching near downtown Fort Worth

“They shot him, riddled his body with bullets, they stabbed him all over, and they ultimately hung him from a tree right here on this land,” Fred Rouse III said.

FORT WORTH, Texas — Fred Rouse III is helping turn one of Fort Worth’s darkest chapters into a memorial meant to shed light on the future. His grandfather, Fred Rouse, was lynched in 1921. The killing is considered Fort Worth’s only recorded lynching by the Ku Klux Klan involving a Black man.

Now, nearly 105 years later, a memorial park honoring Rouse is under construction near downtown Fort Worth. Rouse III is overseeing the project on land where his grandfather was killed.

“Reports say they shot him, riddled his body with bullets, they stabbed him all over, and they ultimately hung him from a tree right here on this land,” Fred Rouse III said.

A photo of Rouse II is part of the memorial. He was just 5 months old when his father was lynched.

“15, 20 miles from my house, I never knew that my grandfather was found hanging from a tree,” Rouse III said, ‘We got the picture of my dad put up. I told my grandfather, I said, I brought your baby to you. I brought your son to you.”

The project has taken on even greater importance for Rouse III after he learned Transform 1012 Center board members voted not to add his grandfather’s name to the nonprofit’s future building site.

The building is the former lodge where the KKK held meetings around the time of Rouse II’s lynching.

“To not have his name on the building, it’s just very painful,” Rouse III said.

Rouse III says he is now using that pain as motivation to help raise the money needed to complete the memorial at Northeast 12th Street and Samuels Avenue. One fundraising effort lets donors place their names on a brick at the memorial.

The fundraiser is supported by the Tarrant County Coalition for Peace and Justice. The Fort Worth nonprofit focuses on education, community dialogue, and remembrance around the history of racial terror and racial injustice in Tarrant County. The organization participates in the Equal Justice Initiative’s Community Remembrance Project and has worked since 2019 to preserve and tell the story of Fred Rouse.

“They’re donating to history. They’re donating to perseverance that’s moving the memorial site forward and bringing attention and awareness to the story about Mr. Fred Rouse,” said Erial Smith, program manager with the Tarrant County Coalition for Peace and Justice.

Donations to the Fred Rouse Memorial Park, including purchasing a Paver Brick with your name, can be made at: https://donorbox.org/donation-to-peace-and-justice. Rouse is also seeking corporate donations for the memorial.

The memorial will be open to everyone, as the near-downtown Fort Worth site helps assure Rouse’s story is not forgotten.

“They may have other tragedies that happen in their own families,” Rouse III said.