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About the Nonprofit

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The West Irving Improvement Association (WIIA) was established in 1964 by a multicultural coalition of Irving residents to bring water and electricity services to the rural community of Bear Creek.  The mission of the WIIA is to preserve and honor the history of the WIIA and the legacy of the historical African American community of Bear Creek by promoting community involvement, advocacy, while providing outreach, educational services and activities that further the betterment of the community as a whole.

Bear Creek is one of the oldest African American communities of freed enslaved people, formed in the state of Texas before the Civil War or the Emancipation Proclamation.  Currently Bear Creek is located in the cities of Grand Prairie and Irving, TX, but its settlers became property owners in the 1850s before both cities were established.  This makes the Bear Creek settlement older than the cities that annexed it by subdividing the community between the two cities, establishing a precedent of political and social neglect in the form of segregation and discrimination that persisted in legal form until 1964.  Residents of Bear Creek historically did most of their business in Irving because it is the closest municipality.  The residents of Bear Creek and members of WIIA hoped and assumed, at that time, Irving would annex all of Bear Creek.  That is why Irving is in the name of the organization.