‘We had to own the land’: How the Forest Theater became a neighborhood revitalization project

By Jennifer Treijo For the first time in its history, the Forest Theater on Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard is owned by a Black-led entity.& “Historically, it has been owned by a Jewish family,” says Elizabeth Wattley, president and CEO of Forest Forward, the nonprofit that stewards the theater. “But now, it’s entirely owned by our organization.”& The historic theater& was constructed by the& Hoblitzelles& in 1949, when South Dallas was a primarily Jewish neighborhood, and MLK Boulevard was Forest Avenue. As Black families moved into South Dallas in the 1940s and ’50s and white families moved out, the theater, which& opened as a whites-only venue in 1949, began catering to Black-only audiences by 1956. Wattley began working on the Forest Theater revitalization& when she was the director of strategic initiatives at& CitySquare, which purchased the theater in 2017. In 2020, Wattley decided to branch off and filed& a 501(c)3 for Forest Forward. What originally started as an effort to revive the theater has expanded in scope, with Forest Forward acquiring several surrounding parcels of land between Julius Schepps Freeway and SM Wright Freeway. Forest Forward now owns the theater, the former liquor store just north of the theater, the...