A Texas-based, non-profit by the name of Transform 1012 N. Main Street (Transform 1012) has announced the purchase of a former Ku Klux Klan auditorium in Fort Worth, Texas. It will be converted into The Fred Rouse Center for Arts and Community Healing, a new cultural hub and space for reconciliation and reclamation for the community. 

The auditorium, located at 1012 N. Main Street, originally opened in 1924, when Fort Worth had one of the largest KKK memberships in the United States. It served as the group’s headquarters in Texas and was designed to intimidate Black, Hispanic, and immigrant residents returning home from the city center.

The acquisition served as the driving force behind the formation of Transform 1012 in 2019. The non-profit is a coalition of local arts, grassroots, and service organizations as well as pro bono partners and individuals. The purchase of the building was made possible by a significant donation from the former owners and a grant from the Rainwater Charitable Foundation. The project is also aided by the efforts of the Transform 1012 Founding Board, which comprises the eight local organizations DNAWORKS, LGBTQ SAVES, Opal Lee Foundation, SOL Ballet Folklórico, Tarrant County Coalition for Peace and Justice, The Welman Project, Window to Your World, and the 1012 Youth Council. Project funders also include Atmos Energy, the Ford Foundation, MASS Design Group, The National Endowment for the Arts, and Tecovas Foundation.

The Fred Rouse Center for Arts and Community Healing honors Mr. Fred Rouse, a Black butcher who was lynched by a White mob in Fort Worth in 1921. Through this initiative, Transform 1012 aims to return resources to the communities that suffered from the marginalization and violence brought by the KKK. The coalition ensures that the space will be led and programmed by representatives of these communities. 

“I envision a crossroads where all of Fort Worth can gather,” said Daniel Banks, Ph.D., Board Chair and Co-Founder/Co-Artistic Director of DNAWORKS, adding “where every cultural group feels a sense of belonging, of being seen, represented, and listened to; where we celebrate the richness of our individual cultures freely and openly; and where repairing past harm and damage leads to greater respect and appreciation, creativity, and love—of self and one another.”

Plans for this adaptive reuse project call for establishing a state-of-the-art performance space, arts training and programming, services for underserved and LGBTQ+ youth, exhibit spaces dedicated to social justice and civil rights, a makerspace and tool library for local DIY classes, meeting spaces for racial equity and leadership workshops and community events, an outdoor urban agricultural and artisan marketplace, and affordable live/work spaces for in-residence artists and entrepreneurs. 

“As a child, my family lost our home to 500+ people, and I don’t know if they were Klansmen or what they were, but they didn’t want us in the neighborhood,” said community and Juneteenth activist and Founding Board Member Dr. Opal Lee. “I want people to know that they can work together, live together, play together — and this building personifies that to me.”