Dallas South’s thoughts on deaths of Lynn Flint Shaw and Rufus Shaw

by Shawn Williams of Dallas South

What can you say but…..man. As I went through my morning routine checking news sites I saw a disturbing headline at DallasNews.com: Two found fatally shot at former DART chairwoman’s home.

The News reports that Rufus Shaw died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound. The story by Dave Levinthal and Scott Goldstein says that “the body of a woman was also found.” Everyone that I’ve spoken with has confirmed that the woman is Mrs. Shaw.

I first met Mrs. Shaw during the 2006 Dallas Bond Campaign. She was one of those in charge of educating the citizens of Southern Dallas about the merits of the proposal. The measure was very well received among black voters due in large part to the efforts of Mrs. Shaw.

She was later appointed chairwoman of the DART Board of Directors. She eventually resigned that post after she was accused of forging a letter on Dallas DA Craig Watkins’ letterhead.

I never met Rufus Shaw, but in many ways he was my first blogging mentor. When I started Dallas South, I had no idea who else was out there in the black blog world. I found two people, Mike Davis at Dallas Progress and Rufus Shaw who was part of DallasBlog.com.

Rufus wrote many thoughtful columns/posts regarding the Dallas political landscape. He was as passionate about the pervasiveness of racism in Dallas politics as he was about the infighting among the African-American “leadership” in the city. I often left comments on Rufus’ posts and was impressed by how he was about to express his opinions at a mainstream forum like Dallas Blog.

Scott and Dave’s article pulls an excerpt of a January 13 post written by Rufus that lays it all out Rufus’ thoughts pretty clearly.

“I have often said in this column that being married to me is Lynn Flint-Shaw’s biggest political liability,” Mr. Shaw wrote. “As a writer, I have made a career out of exposing the corrupt, the inept, and the purveyors of hate and personal destruction in the black community. For my efforts, I have earned the hatred of a great many dysfunctional black political players as well as the scorn of a number of big business types who I have exposed for their broken promises to southern Dallas.

“The end result,” Mr. Shaw continued, “is that African-Americans who seek to work with the white community without race being a factor or those African-Americans who seek to do the job that is best for the whole city are demonized, set up, and destroyed.”

I am overcome with sadness for the way this has all unfolded. Our community needs more leaders like the Shaws and what they have stood for over the years. Regardless of the outcome of police investigations, we see the results of more black on black violence and two more deaths by gunfire. My prayers are with the family that has been impacted by this tragic loss.

Pegasus News content partner - Dallas South
Shawn Williams publishes Dallas South Blog; his e-mail address is shawn@dallassouthblog.com.

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Anonymous

Rawlins Gilliland, says:

I'm sorry and quite surprised to read Shawn that you never met Mr. Shaw. But I know that you, like the rest of us, read his Op-Eds, his great columns and other pieces that always managed to be urbane and insightful while never making it easy for the clueless.

Rufus Shaw has been a Dallas icon in one way or another for decades. Every where I went, I would meet or see him; at events, urban dinners, fundraisers, salutes. Music venues where the drinks were flowing and so was the charm. I always felt star struck when I watched either or both sweep into a room...the most recent was at the Brooklyn Jazz on Lamar not that long ago. These were lovely people with genuine star power.

But they also were people who made a genuine impact difference by actually ‘being’ real rather than just actually really being there. They are a huge loss to people in Dallas who encountered them on many levels, and a loss whose size is unknown to those who only learned of their existence after Mrs. Shaw's recent legal issue and this disaster. The latter being truly sad and wrong.
Rest in peace.