We Are The Future: Heavy Hitters Gather to Celebrate Downtown Dallas Inc.’s 65th Year

What do a Pulitzer Prize-winning author, the first Black mayor of Dallas, and a thriving downtown Dallas have in common? All were celebrated at Friday’s Downtown Dallas Inc.’s 65th annual meeting at Thompson Dallas. 

The city’s first Black mayor, Ron Kirk, stole the show and received a standing ovation as he accepted DDI’s Groundbreaker Award, recognizing a lifetime of work advancing downtown. 

A video highlighting Kirk’s contributions to Dallas referred to the former mayor as a “difference-maker” and the “Michael Jordan of Dallas.”

“Talent wins games, but teamwork and intelligence win championships,” Jordan, revered as the greatest basketball player of all time, once said. 

Kirk accepted his Groundbreaker Award with his signature humor, sharing with the audience some wise words his parents imparted to him when he was a child. 

“You’re as good as everybody else,” Kirk said his parents told him. “This is a fight that we all fought for you to have this opportunity. Don’t F it up, but also don’t get so big-headed to think you’re the first because you’re special. [If you do that], you’ll lose sight of the fact that each of us has the power to transform our lives. Get a good education. Use your talent. Work hard.”

Kirk added that Americans need to remind themselves of those lessons. 

“That’s what makes this city so special because that’s what we do,” he said. 

Downtown Dallas Inc.’s 2023 Board of Governors was named at Friday’s event. New board chairwoman Katy Murray and DDI President and CEO Jennifer Scripps were recognized. 

“Tourism and hospitality has really come roaring back,” Scripps said, adding that last year’s hotel revenues surpassed pre-COVID 2019. 

Pulitzer Prize Winner Lawrence Wright

Dallas journalist Robert Wilonsky interviewed Pulitzer Prize-winning author and playwright Lawrence Wright during the keynote discussion of the DDI event. Wright is a graduate of Dallas ISD’s Woodrow Wilson High School. 

“I haven’t really felt like I was coming home [to Dallas] since my parents passed,” Wright said. “The reason to come to Dallas disappeared. [My visits] became occasional. It’s a little like watching a child you know well become a teenager and become an adult. I look at Dallas now, and the growth is amazing. I remember the YMCA when it was all men, and they weren’t all young, but they were all naked. They all swam naked in the pool.” 

Wilonsky interjected.

“What a delight,” he said. 

Wright signed copies of his 2007 Pulitzer-winning book, “The Looming Tower: Al Qaeda and the Road to 9/11,” after Friday’s luncheon. Wright is also celebrated for his research on the COVID-19 pandemic, Scientology, and terrorism. 

But at Friday’s event, the author just wanted to talk about downtown Dallas. He reflected on the 1963 JFK assassination and the 2016 ambush that killed five Dallas police officers and injured nine others near El Centro College. 

“Dallas is a complicated city, and I have a complicated relationship with it,” he said. “I admire the fact that Dallas knows what it wants. Dallas is a city of opportunity. As long as Dallas can keep its mission intact, it will continue to provide the two things a city is supposed to [provide]: community and opportunity.”

All the cities in Texas are suffering in building community, Wright, explained. 

“The disparity in income and wealth is distorting our societies,” he said. “Texas was predicted to double in size by the year 2050. It’s growing faster than it was when that was predicted. It will be larger than California and New York combined. It’s the future of America. In Dallas, we always felt like we were on the margin. We’re the center now. We are the future.”

Groundbreaker Award Recipient Ron Kirk

In introducing former Mayor Kirk, the recipient of DDI’s first Groundbreaker Award, Scripps recalled his historic election and commented on his vision. 

“By 1995, a growing number of leaders in Dallas were starting to bet on downtown,” Scripps said. “With the historic election of the first Black mayor of Dallas that year, Ron Kirk brought the vision, the passion, and the guts to spark a nearly 30-year renaissance for our urban core.”

In his first inaugural address in 1995, Kirk highlighted the need for an Economic Development Corporation, Scripps added. 

“It was an idea before its time, because the Dallas City Council formed its first EDC last year, just 27 years later,” she said. “Ron Kirk’s passion for our city and downtown has never wavered.” 

Kirk later went on to serve as an ambassador, trade adviser, negotiator, and spokesperson in U.S. President Barack Obama’s cabinet.

“It is more special than you can imagine to be recognized for doing something I love so much,” Kirk said at Friday’s event. “None of this happened alone. This has been a 30-year journey, and it took many of you in this room to believe that we could bring downtown Dallas back. You made big bets on our city, and I want to publicly acknowledge those of you who believed in Dallas as much as I did.”