Browse Items (192 total)

An effigy hangs above the entrance to Mansfield High School as students file in the building on August 30, 1956. The effigy was hung as a protest to integration efforts in Mansfield. The effigy remained for several days.

This photo - taken the month of the Mansfield desegregation crisis in 1956 - depicts a microcosm of Jim Crow-era segregation. In addition to separate water fountains, blacks and whites were separated in bus seating, theater seating, restaurants,…

Document stating unanimous decision by the school board not to integrate for the 1956-1957 school year. The final paragraph in the document states that if the document is denied, rather than be jailed, the board will comply with the provisions of…

Mansfield ISD school board minutes from a regular meeting held on January 26, 1965, show that a motion was made and seconded to sign the Assurance of Compliance Form H.E.W. 441, complying with the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and that the resolution…

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…

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…

The oral history project, conducted in December 1995, sheds light onto perspectives that African Americans shared about voting rights, Jim Crow laws, and life in Mansfield in the 1950s. The project was paid for partially through a Certified Local…

“Mac” Moody brings up T.M. Moody, who was involved in the effort to integrate Mansfield schools. He was harassed because of this, which is explained in the transcript, but he still wanted to fight for equal rights. Although he did not have children,…

Maggie Jackson Briscoe discusses a conversation she had with a woman in a nursing home about praying about the integration issue.

Maggie Jackson Briscoe shares her thoughts on the eventual integration of Mansfield schools.