Transform 1012 N. Main Street

Transform 1012 N. Main Street is a grassroots organization with a mission to transform the former Ku Klux Klan auditorium in Fort Worth, into The Fred Rouse Center for Arts and Community Healing, repurposing a monument to hate into a beacon of truth-telling, reparative justice, and liberation. 

The Fred Rouse Center for Arts and Community Healing will honor the life and memory of Mr. Fred Rouse, a Black non-union butcher and father who was lynched by a white mob in Fort Worth in 1921. The Center, in an act of reparative justice, will return resources to the communities that were targeted for violence and economic marginalization by the KKK - namely Black, Catholic, Hispanic, Immigrant, Jewish and LGBTQQ2SPIAA+ populations.

With services ranging from arts programs for youth and culturally specific arts groups to incubator programs for micro-businesses and DIY classes, The Center will be an affirming and empowering space where affected communities participate in processes of shared leadership while receiving services that provide reparative justice in all these areas. Specifically, the building will contain spaces which address three key pillars of social justice:

Truth-telling and Restorative Justice: 

• Civil Rights Exhibition Galleries dedicated to racial, gender, sexuality, and economic justices, to work in concert with local school districts’ curricula and programming. 
• Meeting Spaces for racial equity and leadership training.  

Storytelling and Personal + Community Response: 

• Theater and Event Space for local and touring culturally specific and social justice-oriented artists and groups. 
• Dance Studio & Rehearsal Room purpose built to provide training for underserved youth and early career performing artists. 

• Story Booths for visitors to tell their own accounts of Fort Worth and the region.
• Amphitheater & Public Park to increase transparency and shift the perception of the building from exclusivity and secrecy to civility and community. 

Economic Development (to support under resourced areas in the city, especially serving Black, Hispanic, and immigrant communities and businesses): 

• Affordable Live/Work Space for economically challenged artists, artisans, and entrepreneurs with potential for mixed-income housing and permanent supportive housing. 
• Tool Library & Maker-space to provide residents with equitable access to DIY equipment and workspace. 
• A Marketplace to help alleviate Northside food deserts while providing small business incubator services to local farmers, artisans, and micro-enterprises.

For more information, please visit our website