The American Dream promised success to Americans in the nineteenth century. This study analyzes the possibilities for average individuals to succeed in rapidly growing Dallas, Texas from 1880 to 1910. Success is measured in terms of occupational, property, and geographical mobility. Available materials dealing with average persons from Dallas: tax rolls, city directories, and the manuscript census for 1880 are evaluated, The focus of this study is primarily on the black population, but for comparison whites and immigrants were also studied. A sample of 216 whites, 212 immigrants, 210 blacks, and 81 mulattoes was randomly drawn from the 1880 census schedules. These men were traced through directories and tax rolls for the period from 1880 to 1910. Information was also tabulated on the female heads of household in Dallas in 1880.

City planning in Dallas, Texas, gives insight into various aspects of the early planning movement in the United States. Dallas city planning offers an opportunity to study the initial work for a plan; citizens' involvement in the pre-planning campaign and later in the workings of the plan itself; the conception of the plan; its implementation; and the differences between the proposed and the implemented plan. Specifically, the 1911 plan for Dallas, Texas affords a chance to examine Kansas City landscape architect George E. Kessler's ideas on urban areas. He believed that planning for an adequate boulevard system would enhance the beauty of a city as well as improving the business climate.