Browse Items (28 total)

On August 31, 1956 segregationists gathered at the Mansfield High School to prevent African American students from registering for the upcoming school year. The same day Governor Allan Shivers dispatched Texas Rangers to Mansfield as a sign to…

Governor Allan Shivers ordered Texas Rangers to be dispatched in an effort to maintain order at the school as segregationists gathered to protest the federal court order to integrate students in 1956. The National Association for the Advancement of…

A telegram from State Representative Joe Pool asking Governor Shivers to call a special legislative session to outlaw the NAACP in Texas. Many citizens around the state shared the Governor’s opinion that the Mansfield crisis was instigated by the…

Telegram suggesting the governor and attorney general ban the NAACP from operating in Texas for instigating riots.

Robyn Ladino, author of "Desegregating Texas Schools: Eisenhower, Shivers, and the Crisis at Mansfield High" asks the Attorney General, Herbert Brownell some questions about the events that led to the crisis, and the crisis itself.

A letter from a Texas citizen to Allan Shivers commending him on his actions in Mansfield, TX. In addition the letter discusses rumors that Shivers will be leaving public office to accept the position of president of a "big Houston bank."

The Governor’s orders sending the Texas Rangers to Mansfield High School to keep the peace on August 31, 1956. The presence of Texas Rangers would ensure the failure of integration in Mansfield. Rather than enforce court orders on integration,…

A press memorandum from Allan Shivers that discusses receiving a telegram from L. Clifford Davis. The memorandum states that the Governor's Office has not received any request for assistance from the Tarrant County sheriff. In addition the memorandum…

Telegram from Texas attorney Palmer Hutcheson to Gov. Shivers referring to Tennessee Gov. Clement's efforts to desegregate schools peacefully and to the effigy hung at Mansfield High School.

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,…