A Tale of Two Cities

The Desegregation and Resegregation of Public High Schools in Mansfield and Dallas, Texas

By Dawn Welch

Brown v. The Board of Education has been celebrated as the Supreme Court case that finally put an end to segregation in public school.  This case clearly has its place in the history curriculum, however, scholars have argued over how much of an impact it truly had on public schools.  While the courts did acknowledge the inequality in the classrooms and banned segregation everywhere, integration has been slow to nonexistent since 1954.  In a comparison between Mansfield ISD and Dallas ISD, (both Texas schools) data shows that not only are students still separated at the high school level, but the access to opportunity is also on an uneven scale.  Similarities between Mansfield and Dallas can be seen in their delay to ending segregation; however, these two cities took different approaches to integration leading to mediocre results and even resegregation in both locales. 

Cass Sunstein’s New Yorker article, “Did Brown Matter?” explained that prior to this case, states followed Plessy v. Ferguson, which ruled that segregation was legal, provided that both institutions were of equal quality.  As time passed, many minority families began to speak out about the inequity within the schools and by 1952, five black plaintiffs filed suit  against the Topeka Board of Education.  When the Brown case finally made it to the Supreme Court, justices were divided in how to approach public school desegregation.  Justices Felix Frankfurter and Robert Jackson did not want to overturn a long standing precedent and were concerned that this ban on segregation would be difficult to enforce.  The court, oddly enough, agreed to revisit the case and in 1953, when Justice Fred Vinson, a supporter of keeping Plessy v. Ferguson died of a heart attack just before the case was revisited.  His replacement would be Earl Warren and the case would eventually unanimously decide that equality was not taking place in segregated schools and thereby the court ordered desegregation.^[1]   The decision explained the impact on minority children that were thought of as “inferior” and included this in the reasoning that separate but equal doesn’t truly work. Justices referred to the Equal Protection Clause under the fourteenth amendment, ruling that schools are “inherently unequal”.^[2] 

One year following the decision, arguments were heard as to how desegregation would be implemented.  By May 31, 1955 Chief Justice Warren read the court’s decision that states would implement a plan “with all deliberate speed”.  Many southern states disagreed with the decision as did some constitutional scholars who argued that legal precedence was ignored and data from social scientists was used in its place.^[3]  The vague language of this court order yielded progress in desegregating Texas for a decade; partly due to litigation in Texas in 1955, where District Court Judge William Atwell ruled against a plaintiff who was seeking desegregation in Dallas ISD schools.  The NAACP filed suit in 1957 on behalf of two black children who wanted to go to school closer to their home.  On both occasions, Atwell ruled against the plaintiffs and argued that the Supreme Court had overstepped its authority.  By 1961, Dallas was the largest city that was still segregated. When the Civil Rights act was passed in 1964, it was now clear that desegregation would happen everywhere.  While Dallas ISD claimed to desegregate in 1967 following the Civil Rights Act, the Tasby case, a case that would last 23 years would prove that desegregation was in name only as de facto segregation still existed.^[4]

Although the intention of the Brown case was altruistic in ending segregation, the vague decisions (that did not provide a timeline) on implementation thwarted efforts in the South.  Dallas would not be the only city to drag its feet in this issue.   Mansfield, Texas would do the same as would many rural and urban communities in Texas.  White Texans complained that their children had to change schools or ride buses longer if schools followed through with any plans to desegregate.  Accordingly, whites also began leaving larger cities in hopes of escaping integration, and the inconveniences it came with.  Many flocked to suburban areas, where they would recreate schools that would again, be primarily white.  This forced the city of Dallas, whose population was dwindling to be forced to find a solution to the desegregation dilemma.

In an article Identifying School Desegregation Leadership Styles, William Beck, Glenn Linden, and Michael Siegel compare the transitions of desegregation between Boston and Dallas.  They argued that it was the leadership style of Dallasites in 1976, who had spent 12 years planning this event that led to a relatively calm period after schools finally integrated.  The Dallas Committee maintained by 13 whites, 8 blacks and 5 chicanos managed to spread more positive than negative feelings about the event and thereby creating less long term resistance.  Boston, on the other hand, fostered fear and hate towards desegregation, making the process all the more painful.^[5] 

Beck’s article may have some truth to this as research so far has shown that Dallas ISD did have some success years later.  According to the Dallas ISD website, Booker T. Washington High School in Dallas was built in 1922 as the first African American school in Dallas.  By 1955 it was renovated and became a technical school and in 1976 became an arts magnet school based on a desegregation court order.  Faced with the challenge of integrating schools and curbing hostilities, Dallas decided a potential solution was to create magnet schools. The idea was to focus on a school with a common interest instead of its racial makeup.  These magnet schools would be schools based on the arts, STEM, gifted and talented, health, and much more.  Students apply to these schools within the district and are enrolled without regard to race, but more so on common interests that the school can provide.  Today US News and World Report ranks Booker T. Washington 296 out of  17,680 schools.  The Dallas ISD Gifted and Talented school is ranked number 6 in the nation.^[6] 

Mansfield ISD, like Dallas, also fought for a decade to prevent desegregation.  In The NAACP State Conference In Texas: Intermediary and Catalyst for Change, 1937-1957, Ramona Houston writes, “The campaign to desegregate Mansfield High School proved to be one of the most difficult challenges for the Texas NAACP.  Parents, students, the NAACP, the White Citizens’ Councils, and officials for the state of Texas were all involved in the struggle.”^[7]  In 1955 black parents with children in Mansfield filed suit in an attempt to make improvements in the separate black school in Mansfield.  Children were educated in substandard conditions and their children had to travel to Fort Worth every day to attend the separate black school, I.M. Terrell.  Not only did they take a public service bus to downtown Fort Worth, but they were required to walk twenty blocks to the high school. 

When nothing was rectified within the school district, a suit was filed on behalf of twelve black high school students against Mansfield ISD.  A federal court order ruled in favor of the high school students and as a result, mob violence broke out.  Over 300 mostly male whites blocked the students from entering the school.  When the students' attorney requested protection from Governor Allan Shivers via police or state guard, the request was ignored. The NAACP concluded, “Given the violent outbreaks in the first week, and the refusal of state leadership to provide protection and assist in the efforts to desegregate the school, the NAACP attorneys decided to end efforts to desegregate Mansfield High School at that time.”^[8]  Much like Boston, Mansfield ISD fostered more fear and hate resulting in delayed integrated campuses.  According to US News and World Report, none of them rank in the top 500 nationally. ^[9]

Seventy years after the Brown v. Board of Education case declared segregation illegal, data shows that Dallas and Mansfield are still segregated.  According to “School Resegregation: Must the South Turn Back?” authors John Boger and Gary Orfield describe trends reported between 1990-2000 concerning the resegregation of schools in the south.  Boger and Orfield attribute this steady increase not only to housing patterns and residential status, but more importantly in the Supreme Court’s release in supervision of school districts.  As school districts are removed from desegregation orders, schools become less accountable in ensuring that schools are not divided.^[10]   Their study found, “Black-white public school segregation, in particular, increased in almost every state in the South from 1990 to 2000…segregation increased in more than three-quarters of the one hundred counties in the South with the largest black student enrollments.”^[11]  A look at the 2023 US News and World Report’s Best High School Rankings shows this same trend.  When comparing three Dallas ISD high schools, data shows that schools such as Booker T. Washington has a 61% minority enrollment; however, only 19% are black.  39% are white at this magnet school.  Skyline High School, a traditional high school, has a 98% minority enrollment, 20% are black and less than 2% are white.  South Oak Cliff High school has a 99% minority enrollment, 63% black and less than 1% white.  When looking at a map it is difficult to miss Highland Park in the northern area of Dallas.  Highland Park ISD has one high school and has 18% minority enrollment with 1% black and 82% white.  It is also worth noting that because Highland Park is its own Independent School District, the property taxes assessed for schools are calculated on high value homes, giving more revenue to only Highland Park Schools, excluding Dallas ISD. 

On a smaller scale, resegregation is also happening in the suburbs of Mansfield.  Mansfield High School, whose boundaries are drawn around a country club, consists of 59% minority enrollment with 20% black and 40% white.  Contrary to Mansfield High School, the school four miles north, Summit High School has an 84% minority enrollment, 42% black and 16% white.  Timberview High School had similar numbers to Summit, with 88% minority enrollment, with 50% black and 11% white. 

Recent test scores have shown disparities in performance as well.  TEA’s 2022 Comprehensive Report on Texas Public Schools shows African Americans performing significantly lower in U.S. History and English I, with very few mastering the subjects.  Their data specifically showed: African American, Hispanic, and White students were highest in U.S. History (84%, 87%, and 96%, respectively) and lowest in English I (53%, 56%, and 79%) Similarly, percentages of African American, Hispanic, and White students achieving Masters Grade Level performance were highest in U.S. History (32%, 36%, and 60%, respectively) and lowest in English II (4%, 5%, and 15%).”^[12] 

To conclude the seventy years that the south has been ordered to desegregate, there has been some progress made and many Americans, of all backgrounds have had more opportunities than in the past.  However, it is also important to recognize that it took a conscious effort (with pushback) to integrate public schools, and perhaps it is an effort that needs to continue.  It appears to be popular in political thought though that desegregation was only needed to remedy a past situation and is no longer necessary.   Similarly this can be seen in the new Texas law  SB 17 that abolished Diversity, Equity and Inclusion offices on college campuses.  Opponents to the passing of this bill have argued, with good evidence, that opportunities are being left out to many and that institutions are more segregated now than in 1980. Only time will tell if these institutions were ready for the change. 

^[1] Cass R. Sunstein, “Did Brown Matter?,” The New Yorker, April 26, 2004,

https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2004/05/03/did-brown-matter.

^[2] “Brown v. Board of Education (1954).” National Archives and Records Administration. Accessed December 13, 2023. https://www.archives.gov/milestone-documents/brown-v-board-of-education.

^[3] “Brown v. Board of Education (1954).”

^[4] “Background Info.”: DISD Desegregation Litigation Archives - SMU Dedman School of Law.

Accessed December 13, 2023.

https://www.smu.edu/Law/Library/Collections/DISD-Desegregation-Litigation-Archives/Background-Info.

^[5] William W. Beck, Glenn M. Linden, and Michael E. Siegel. "Identifying School

Desegregation Leadership Styles." The Journal of Negro Education 49, no. 2 (1980): 116.

^[6] “Booker T. Washington SPVA in Dallas, TX - US News Best High Schools,” US News Best High Schools, accessed May 22, 2024, https://www.usnews.com/education/best-high-schools/texas/districts/dallas-independent-school-district/booker-t-washington-spva-18916.

^[7] Ramona Houston, “The NAACP State Conference in Texas: Intermediary and Catalyst for Change, 1937–1957.” The Journal of African American History 94, no. 4 (2009): 509–28. https://doi.org/10.1086/jaahv94n4p509.

^[8] Houston, 2009.

^[9] 2023-2024 best high schools in America - US news. Accessed December 14, 2023. https://www.usnews.com/education/best-high-schools/national-rankings. 

^[10] John Charles Boger and Gary Orfield, eds., School Resegregation: Must the South Turn Back? (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2005,) Accessed May 21, 2024. ProQuest Ebook Central.

^[11] Boger, 51.

^[12] 2022 Comprehensive Biennial Report on Texas public schools. Accessed December 14, 2023. https://tea.texas.gov/reports-and-data/school-performance/accountability-research/comp-annual-biennial-2022.pdf.