Wallace Hamilton Savage: Lawyer, Mayor, and Philanthropist of Dallas (1912–2000)

Wallace Hamilton Savage, lawyer and mayor of Dallas, was born on November 21, 1912, in Houston, Texas, to Homer Hamilton Savage and Mary (Wallace) Savage, a lawyer. His parents separated when he was young. He and his mother had moved to Austin by 1920 and then to Dallas about 1922. In 1929 Savage was a member of the first graduating class of Woodrow Wilson High School. He attended Southern Methodist University and earned degrees from the University of Virginia and Harvard Law School. He did graduate work as a university fellow at the University of Colorado Law School and was a member of the legal honor society Phi Delta Phi. On October 12, 1940, Savage married Dorothy Minnie Harris, daughter of William R. Harris, special prosecutor in the 1917 impeachment case against James E. “Pa” Ferguson. They had two daughters, Virginia and Dorothy. During World War II Savage served in the U.S. Navy; he ascended from ensign to commander and was stationed aboard the USS Manila Bay aircraft carrier in the Pacific Theater. Following the war he served as commander of the Dallas Naval Reserve unit and was a member of the American Legion and Veterans of Foreign Wars. In 1946 he became a partner in the law firm of Runge, Lane & Savage.

Dallas City Council Elections (1947 and 1949)

In 1947 Savage ran for Place No. 5 on the Dallas city council as part of the Citizens Charter Association (CCA) slate of candidates. The association won eight of the nine seats on the council, with six contests being decided in runoff elections. Savage and James R. Temple were both elected to their seats without the need for a runoff. Savage was subsequently named mayor pro tem, a role held by Jean Baptiste Adoue, Jr., in the previous term, and Temple was named mayor. During this term, the city initiated construction of the Central Expressway, a major milestone in Dallas's urban development.

In the 1949 city council election for Place No. 5, Savage was re-elected from a pool of five candidates competing in a race that was historically significant for including Howard Daniels, Jr., the first African American candidate for Dallas city council. In the 1949 election Adoue was the top vote earner and anticipated being named mayor by the council members, yet Savage was chosen with a 5–3 vote. This outcome angered Adoue and some CCA members and spurred a campaign for a city charter amendment to allow the direct election of the mayor. Despite the council’s initial opposition, a successful petition led to a 1949 referendum election. The amendment passed, effective for the 1951 election. Members of the council claimed that they did not view the election as a mandate to replace Savage with Adoue, who was elected mayor in 1951.

Mayor of Dallas (1949–51)

Wallace Savage's mayoralty occurred amidst Dallas’s expansion following the end of World War II. His tenure coincided with important urban developments, including the opening of the first section of the Central Expressway. During this period, the city’s Black residents suffered an acute housing shortage. Housing for African Americans was of poor quality, and new developments had not kept pace with population growth. Compounding this issue, upwardly-mobile African Americans who attempted to move into White areas in South Dallas were terrorized with bombings and arson attacks. The housing crisis was exacerbated when rent controls were lifted in 1949 and by planned slum-clearing efforts to develop the Trinity River bottoms where many Black families lived.

Savage pursued a public housing program to meet the needs of African Americans and to facilitate slum clearance. While he supported policies that would deprive many Black families of their hard-won status as homeowners, his administration also challenged some aspects of racial injustice. It secured the end of segregated ambulance service and opened parks to African Americans. Savage’s stance on equitable law enforcement was significant in light of the complicity of the police in anti-Black terrorism in South Dallas.

Texas Democratic Party Leadership

In 1952 Savage become chair first of the Dallas County Democratic Executive Committee and then of the state Democratic Executive Committee. He notably served as state chair of the Democratic party while his law partner, Alvin Lane, served as state chair of the Republican party. Savage was among the conservative Democrats who supported Republican candidate Dwight Eisenhower over Democratic nominee Adlai Stevenson in the 1952 presidential election.

He was identified with the Shivercrats, those within the Democratic party aligned with Governor Allan Shivers’s conservatism. In 1954 Savage resigned as state chair to run for a seat in the U.S. House of Representatives. He faced criticism by liberal Democrats for his treatment of party liberals while state chair and particularly for the alleged libeling of liberal Leslie Hacker in the party’s primaries. Although his loss to Bruce Alger was primarily a result of Savage alienating liberal Democrats, the election reflected a growing number of Republican victories in normally Democratic precincts in Texas.

Later Life and Philanthropic Causes

Savage left politics after losing the election. He served on numerous civic and philanthropic boards. In 1970 Savage published a mystery novel entitled A Bait of Perjury: A Novel of Suspense and Legal Intrigue.

In 1965, along with his wife Dorothy, Savage founded the Dallas Academy to serve students with special education needs. They were inspired by their personal experiences with their youngest daughter, who was born deaf and diagnosed with cerebral palsy. The Dallas Academy, initially named the Plano Academy for the Achievement of Human Potential as part of the University of Plano, was among the first institutions in Dallas to provide such specialized education services. In 1966 it opened its doors with forty students and quickly gained recognition. The school drew families from across the globe for its tailored programs. Two years after its opening, it obtained its own charter from the state, ended its affiliation with the university, and changed its name to Dallas Academy.

In the 1970s and 1980s Wallace and Dorothy Savage were actively involved in the historic preservation movement in Dallas. Dorothy Savage is credited with leading the successful efforts of the Historic Preservation League (later Preservation Dallas), of which Dorothy was a charter member, to prevent the demolition of historic architecture in their Swiss Avenue neighborhood. Their efforts helped secure the area’s selection to the National Register of Historic Places—it was the city’s first such recognized historical district—and served as a model for future preservation initiatives. The Dorothy and Wallace Savage Park at Swiss Avenue and Bryan Street, marked by a stone obelisk, commemorates their contributions to the area.

Wallace Hamilton Savage died on June 19, 2000, in Dallas and was interred alongside his wife, who preceded him in death in 1999, at Grove Hill Cemetery in Dallas.