The Bear Creek community in west Irving is one of the oldest African American communities in Dallas County. During the late 1850s, a mix of free blacks and whites and their enslaved people settled along the upper reaches of Bear Creek near today's intersection of Rock Island and Gilbert Roads. After the Civil War and Emancipation, news of the freedman settlement drew newly freed slaves to the area. Many settlers became first-time landowners and farmed small plots, while sharecropping remained a primary source of employment through the second half of the 19th and early 20th centuries. With the end of slavery, black churches became centerpieces of African American culture and community, and Shady Grove Christian Methodist Episcopal Church was established in 1884 and remains active. That same year, Jim Green, one of Bear Creek's first black landowners, donated land for the Freedom School, with other residents contributing materials and labor. In 1964, residents of Bear Creek and Irving formed the West Irving Improvement Association to advocate for a better quality of life, and in 1969 the part of the community north of Rock Island Road was annexed into Irving. Jackie Howard moved with her family to Bear Creek in 1949, married Jimmie Townsell in 1951, and with him opened a small grocery store in 1959 that operated for 38 years as a social center and meeting place for residents. In 1977, Jackie Townsell became the first African American elected to the Irving City Council and served for 19 years.