Texas Rangers pose in front of effigy at Mansfield High School
Texas Rangers stand in front of Mansfield High School, where an effigy of an African American hangs above the front door.
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 maintain law and order. The memorandum instructed Colonel Garrison to “arrest anyone, white or colored, whose actions are such as to represent a threat to the peace" (see footnote below). The first day of school and final day of registration was Tuesday, September 4. Captain Crowder dispatched a total of nine Texas Rangers on site that Tuesday morning as a precautionary measure for crowd control (see footnote below). No African American students registered or attended Mansfield High School in 1956.
Bibliography: Robyn Duff Ladino, Desegregating Texas Schools: Eisenhower, Shivers, and the Crisis at Mansfield High (Austin: University of Texas Press, 1996), 102, 111
Texas State Library and Archives Commission
1956
Texas Ranger in Mansfield
The Texas Rangers were deployed to Mansfield.
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 Colored People (NAACP) viewed the use of the Texas Rangers as an attempt to maintain segregation. Leaders of the NAACP saw the governor’s actions as contrary to the Supreme Court order. Governor Shivers blamed the problem at Mansfield on the NAACP and commented that “the paid agitators ought to be put in jail” (see footnote). The back and forth exchanges between both sides indicated the divisive nature of the integration issue as Mansfield became a battleground that challenged the “separate but equal” law when the NAACP filed Jackson v. Rawdon on October 7, 1955.
Bibliography: Robyn Duff Ladino, Desegregating Texas Schools: Eisenhower, Shivers, and the Crisis at Mansfield High (Austin: University of Texas Press, 1996), 117-118.
Texas State Library and Archives Commission
1956
Press Memorandum Allan Shivers 1956-08-31 Part II
Press memorandum
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, Governor Shivers justified his actions as ensuring peace in Mansfield and allowing time for a possible appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court in staying integration orders.
"Press Memorandum Shivers 1956-08-31," Box 532, Texas Governor Allan Shivers, Texas State Library and Archives Commission at Austin
1956-08-31