Mansfield ISD school board minutes, January 26, 1965
Mansfield ISD school board minutes from the meeting in which the board effectively voted to allow integration.
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 would be published in the Mansfield News-Mirror see [Mansfield News Mirror, January 29, 1965, School Board to Comply With Civil Rights Order.]
Mansfield ISD
1965-01-26
Integration plan dated May 12, 1965
A plan is developed for integration at Mansfield High School.
Ten years after the lawsuit to integrate Mansfield High School, in a letter sent to the Office of Health, Education, and Welfare, a plan is laid out for the integration of Mansfield School District. In this plan there is no mention of the high school being integrated, however, in August, three months after this letter is sent to Washington D.C., Mansfield High School is, in fact, finally integrated.
Mansfield ISD via Bethlehem Baptist Church
1965-05-12
Mansfield African-American Oral History Project
A 1995 oral history project in Mansfield captured the memories of African Americans.
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 Government grant from the National Park Service, U.S. Department of the Interior, and administered by the Texas Historical Commission. Additional funding was given via matching grants from the Mansfield Historical Society and the Bethlehem Baptist Church congregation.
Mansfield Public Library
1995-12
Effigy hangs on flagpole at Mansfield High School
Boys look on as an effigy hangs from a flagpole at Mansfield High School in 1956.
Thursday August 30, 1956 was the first day of registration for all students at Mansfield High School. A federal district court ordered the high school to integrate African American students a few days earlier. The school board and community of Mansfield disagreed with the mandated decree and tension mounted as demonstrated by the effigies hung on school grounds as a sign of protest. No African American students registered during the enrollment period and continued attending I.M. Terrell High School in Fort Worth. The high school did not fully integrate until 1965.
Courtesy, Fort Worth Star-Telegram Collection, Special Collections, The University of Texas at Arlington Library, Arlington, Texas
1956-08-30
Attempt to remove the effigy on the flagpole
Two men try to remove an effigy hanging from a flagpole at Mansfield High School in 1956.
An effigy prominently displayed from a flagpole on school grounds is hoisted in the early morning hours on Thursday, August 30, 1956. The citizens of the Mansfield community gathered on school grounds to protest court-ordered integration. Later in the morning, two men - J.T. Pressley and Willard Pressley, 20-year-old cousins - attempted to remove the effigy but were unsuccessful. School administrators refused to remove the effigy, and the gathering of segregationists returned the next day to school grounds to prevent the enrollment of African American students.
Courtesy, Fort Worth Star-Telegram Collection, Special Collections, The University of Texas at Arlington Library, Arlington, Texas
1956-08-30
Crowd at Mansfield High School
A crowd gathers at Mansfield High School after integration efforts begin.
The Mansfield community gathered on school grounds on Thursday, August 30, 1956 to prevent three African American students from registering at the high school. The size of the crowd reported in newspapers ranged from 200 to 500 on both Thursday and Friday. In the background an effigy hanging from a flagpole indicated the segregationists’ resistance to integration. Sheriff Wright and his deputies previously removed an effigy hung in a downtown intersection two days earlier. Governor Allan Shivers dispatched the Texas Rangers to maintain order and provide support for the white citizens gathered at the high school.
Courtesy, Fort Worth Star-Telegram Collection, Special Collections, The University of Texas at Arlington Library, Arlington, Texas
1956-08-30
Congestion of cars at Mansfield High School
A crowd gathers at Mansfield High School after integration efforts begin.
A crowd assembled at the Mansfield High School grounds on August 31, 1956 to protest the registration of three African American students. The crowd included angry residents instructed to comply with a federal district court order. Heated exchanges occurred during the day between the radical segregationists and news reporters on scene to cover the events. The Fort Worth Star-Telegram reported that Tarrant County Assistant District Attorney Grady Hight exchanged words with the crowd and had to be escorted to safety by officers. The pro-segregationist gubernatorial candidate W. Lee O’Daniel also made a campaign appearance that day on the school grounds.
Courtesy, Fort Worth Star-Telegram Collection, Special Collections, The University of Texas at Arlington Library, Arlington, Texas
1956-08-31
Car painted with racial slurs
A car painted with racial slurs is parked near Mansfield High School.
A car painted with racial slurs is parked near Mansfield High School on August 30, 1956. Several hundred white citizens protested the registration of black students at the school. The protest was in response to the decision in the lawsuit of Nathaniel Jackson, a minor, et al. v O.C. Rawdon, et al. of the United States Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans overturning a lower court’s decision. The Fifth Circuit’s decision mandated that the Mansfield Independent School District allow African American students to register at the previous white-only Mansfield High School. No African American students registered that day.
Courtesy, Fort Worth Star-Telegram Collection, Special Collections, The University of Texas at Arlington Library, Arlington, Texas
1956-08-30
Crowd with alligator
The crowd at Mansfield High School protesting integration gathers around a man holding a baby alligator.
During the protest against desegregation at Mansfield High School, John Pyles held a baby alligator as a warning to any African American who appeared on the school grounds that they would be "gator bait."
Courtesy, Fort Worth Star-Telegram Collection, Special Collections, The University of Texas at Arlington Library, Arlington, Texas
1956-08-30
Dwight D. Eisenhower's comments on the Supreme Court's decision, and desegregation 1956-08-19
Dwight D. Eisenhower Papers
Ann Whitman, Dwight D. Eisenhower's secretary describes a telephone conversation between Eisenhower and the Attorney General, Herbert Brownell, regarding the Supreme Court's decision (Brown v. Board of Education) and segregation.
According to Whitman, Eisenhower explicitly tells Brownell to not say "the Eisenhower Administration" have supported the Supreme Court in the desegregation business, before Brownell's brief before the Supreme Court. Eisenhower wanted Brownell to appear as a lawyer, not apart of the Eisenhower Administration.
This demonstrates Eisenhower's "middle of the road" approach to civil rights issues, and this becomes a predecessor to how Eisenhower would deal with the "Mansfield Crisis" a few weeks later.
Dwight D. Eisenhower’s comments on segregation, August 19, 1956, Eisenhower Dwight D.: Papers as President of the United States, 1953-61 (Ann Whitman File), Ann Whitman Diary Series, Box 8, Aug. '56 (1), Dwight D. Eisenhower Presidential Library, Abilene, Kansas.
Dwight D. Eisenhower Presidential Library
1956-08-19