Amarillo Daily News 1956-08-30
Newspaper article
This article relates the reaction from a Federal District judge to an effigy found hanging on Main Street in Mansfield. Equating the seriousness of the effigy to voter fraud, the judge also hints that more trouble may be coming to Mansfield in the next few days. The article also notes the reactions of the Tarrant County Sheriff and L. Clifford Davis, neither of whom takes the effigy to be a “threat of violence” against the blacks of Mansfield.
"Mansfield Probe Ordered," Amarillo Daily News (Amarillo, TX), Aug. 30, 1956.
Amarillo Daily News
1956-08-30
Amarillo Daily News 1956-08-31
Newspaper article
This article focuses on the anger of white residents towards the mandate of integration. That anger is directed at black residents who would try to register, the County Sheriff who showed up at the school, and the Judges who are mandating integration. Machine guns in the hands of the mob was mentioned more than once, and threats of violence to one Mansfield black resident shows the lengths to which the white mob is willing to go. The article also states how many school districts are already integrated in the state, as well as the Mansfield School Board’s next step in their fight against integration.
"Use of Force Is Threatened," Amarillo Daily News (Amarillo, TX), Aug. 31, 1956.
Amarillo Daily News
1956-08-31
Amarillo Daily News 1956-09-01
Newspaper article
This article, and the picture that accompanied it on the front page, builds the tension that had already started to boil the day before. It details the mobs’ efforts to search for blacks’ on incoming school buses, as well as a confrontation and shoving match that ensued between the mob and Assistant District Attorney Grady Hight of Fort Worth. Governor Shivers wastes no time in laying blame with the NAACP for the problems at Mansfield as he sends orders to both the Texas Rangers and the school. The NAACP, through attorney L. Clifford Davis, refuses to subject the black students to the threat of violence and unsuccessfully attempts to enroll them via telegram. The article also progresses the courtroom battle for the Mansfield School District saying the appeal in Houston was denied.
McGraw, Preston. "Transfers Ordered at Mansfield," Amarillo Daily News (Amarillo, TX), Sept. 1, 1956.
Amarillo Daily News
1956-09-01
Amarillo Daily News 1956-09-03
Newspaper article
This article relates the still simmering tensions in Mansfield. While stating that nothing happened over the weekend, it leaves no doubt that the mob will return on Tuesday to continue to keep black students from enrolling. It also apprises the readers that Floyd Moody, one of the black students from the court case, had registered at a Negro School in Fort Worth. The rest of the article is meant to inform the reader of the current legal battle for the Mansfield School District and what channels of appeal are still available to them.
"Tension in Mansfield Quiet Over Weekend," Amarillo Daily News (Amarillo, TX), Sept. 3, 1956.
Amarillo Daily News
1956-09-03
Amarillo Daily News 1956-09-05
Newspaper article
This article brings the Mansfield Crisis into focus with other segregation issues around the state as well as locally to Amarillo. While discussing racial problems in Alvarado, a town near Amarillo, the article also keeps the reader updated on the racial problems in Fort Worth, especially with Lloyd G. Austin and the violence surrounding his decision to stay in a previously all-white neighborhood. It also makes it apparent that the same priest, Rev. C. W. Clark, showed up in both Fort Worth and Mansfield to speak to the crowds assembled. The Mansfield mob, less inclined to hear him, caused him to be “rescued” by a Ranger. Also, as the school board lost its final appeal to the Supreme Court, a Mansfield business owner claimed to have a statement from the 12 black students that said they had no intention of attending Mansfield High School for the current year.
"Race Tensions in Mansfield Eased," Amarillo Daily News (Amarillo, TX), Sept. 5, 1956.
Amarillo Daily News
1956-09-05
Mansfield High School: Texas Ranger, students, and effigy
Students gather around a Texas Ranger in front of Mansfield High School with an effigy hanging in the background, 1956.
In this photograph, Mansfield residents surround one of two Texas Rangers in front of Mansfield High School in late August 1956. The Texas Rangers were in Mansfield by request of Governor Allan Shivers to stop any threat of violence when approximately 200 to 500 white residents of Mansfield and surrounding areas gathered at the high school to keep African American students from registering. As is visible in the background of the picture, a black painted effigy hangs over the entrance of the school.
Courtesy of Texas State Library and Archives Commission
1956-08
Bethlehem Baptist Church Mural
The mural is a visual representation of the struggle for equality in Mansfield, Texas.
When the addition of the T. M. Moody building was completed in 2006 at the Bethlehem Baptist Church, in west Mansfield, the church commissioned a mural in the entrance depicting the events of the Mansfield Crisis. T.M. Moody, the focal point of this mural, was a local citizen of Mansfield working with L. Clifford Davis, an attorney for the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), to enforce the integration of African American students at Mansfield High School after the 1955 Supreme Court decree of Brown v. Board of Education II. In the foreground of the mural on the left are recognizable residents of the African American community and some prominent members of the congregation of Bethlehem Baptist Church; in the right corner of the mural are the Texas Rangers and local law enforcement; in the background are the white residents of Mansfield. This mural stands as a memory to the congregation of the Bethlehem Baptist Church.
It should be noted that the artist employed artistic license in depicting the events of August 1956. Aside from the recognizable historical figures, the scenes borrow from other iconic images of other civil rights protests.
Kimberly Moody
2015-03-04
Mansfield Community Cemetery
The photo illustrates the physical legacy of segregation in Mansfield, Texas.
There was a time that even the cemetery in Mansfield, Texas was divided by race. The fence and sign dividing the “Whites Only” cemetery from “The Old Negro Graveyard” still remains. At some point “Negro” was erased and replaced with “Colored,” a sign of changing times. This, one of the last physical signs of Jim Crow in Mansfield, still stands in the Mansfield Cemetery.
Megan Middleton
2015-03-04
Amarillo Daily News 1956-09-06
Newspaper
This article gives the reader the insight to the federal response to integration. As President Eisenhower pleads for moderation in the segregation “dispute”, he informs the nation that he will not intervene unless a state or local government cannot “maintain order”. Even after being informed of Governor Shivers open defiance of the integration order, he evades the question of action by stating he has no knowledge of what was said or done, but has asked for a full report on the court case involving Mansfield.
"Ike Nixes Government Action in Race Riot," Amarillo Daily News (Amarillo, TX), Sept. 6, 1956.
Amarillo Daily News
1956-09-06
Brownsville Herald 1956-08-30
Newspaper
These two article discuss the situation in Mansfield and Fort Worth. The first article gives scant details about the scene at Mansfield other than a police presence and a “group” estimated at 200 men and women. While the situation in Mansfield was considered possibly explosive by the County Sheriff Harlon Wright, he did not consider the effigy hung on Main Street to be a “serious matter”. Instead, District Judge David McGee did, especially in conjunction with another effigy hung up in similar fashion in Fort Worth. Both articles set the scene for racial tension in the area, as well as the response from those in charge.
"Law Alerted For Trouble In Mansfield," Brownsville Herald (Brownsville, TX), Aug. 30, 1956; "Negro Effigy Is Found In Fort Worth," Brownsville Herald (Brownsville, TX), Aug. 30, 1956.
Brownsville Herald
1956-08-30