Texas Woman’s University will dedicate its Quakertown Memorial on Tuesday, Oct. 20, 2026, giving Denton residents a new place to learn about a Black neighborhood whose families were forced from their homes more than a century ago.
The memorial ceremony starts at 10 a.m. at 700 E. University Drive, south of TWU’s athletic fields. An earlier ribbon cutting for the East Campus Outdoor Facilities begins at 9 a.m. at the pavilion next to Pioneer Soccer Park, according to TWU’s festival calendar.
TWU says the memorial includes an amphitheater, residents’ names engraved in stone and a map depicting Denton in 1920. The outdoor recreation project adds trails and a pavilion. During the first Pioneer Stomp, participants will spread seed for native flowers and grasses in a conservation area.
The history involves TWU itself. In its account of Quakertown, the university acknowledges that leaders of its predecessor, the College of Industrial Arts, helped promote the park-bond campaign associated with residents’ displacement. TWU says nearly 60 residences were forcibly sold in 1922 and that residents resisted removal. A university committee began work in 2017 on how to recognize that history.
A public screening of “Quakertown, USA,” directed by Lindell Singleton and King Hollis, follows at 1 p.m. in Hubbard Hall’s Phyllis J. Bridges Auditorium. TWU is presenting the documentary with the Denton Black Film Festival.
