Jeff Pointer leaned against the green Mosier Valley Park sign as the afternoon sun brightened the park on the northeast side of Fort Worth. The area was once the site of a community center that was the heart of a historic Black community founded by people freed from enslavement.
Pointer, 56, recalls his childhood, spent playing in the woods and picking berries. The community had dirt roads back then. The Mosier Valley Community Center, where he and his friends gathered, defined the community.
Today, the community center is gone, as is what was a nearby schoolhouse. A large part of the community’s identity was lost with them. But Pointer looks at the park, which is largely undeveloped, and sees a place that could again be a gathering place for children and serve as a community focal point…