November 8, 1955 - Mansfield School Board Minutes
Minutes from a called School Board Meeting on November 8, 1955.
One day after court proceedings in Jackson v. Rawdon, a school board meeting is called and a contract with T.M. Moody from 1950, allowing him use of water from the "colored" school is discontinued.
Mansfield Independent School District - School Board Minutes
Mansfield Independent School District
1955-11-08
Mansfield African American Oral History Project, excerpt about inequity in schools
McClendon Moody discusses the inequity in white and African American schools in Mansfield at one time.
McClendon Moody continues to speak about the integration process in Mansfield and what brought about the discussion. The supplies the African American children used were not very good and this gave T.M. Moody the idea to pursue integration. He was harassed and effigies were hung and said to resemble him.
Mansfield African American Oral History Project unabridged transcript, page 38
1995-12
Mansfield African American Oral History Project, T.M. Moody discussion
McClendon Moody discusses T.M. Moody, who helped lead the effort to integrate Mansfield schools.
“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, he still fought for the rights of the African American children in Mansfield.
Mansfield African American Oral History Project, unabridged transcript, page 37
1995-12
Jossie Brooks on Threats against Moody
Violence in Jim Crow South
Jossie Brooks recalls the threats made against T.M. Moody after the Crisis of 1956.
UNT Oral History Program
UNT Oral History Program
April 9, 2015
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