Chad R. Trulson, James W. Marquart, Ben M. Crouch - First Available Cell; Desegregation of the Texas Prison System (2009).pdf - e-booki 01 - USA - dwlodek

First Available Cell

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4 The Outside

tained by rigid segregationist laws and customs in most southern states—a

crossing that transfused the white music of the day with black music. Presley

was an innovator who opened the doors for a multitude of musicians.2 His

melding of white and black music not only deied the staunch segregationist

attitudes of the day but led to mixed race audiences and an erosion of the color

barrier, particularly among southern youth.3

Elvis Presley crossed the color line without fear and without penalty. His

crossing, like most test pilots of the day, made him a legend, a hero, a teen

idol, a movie star, and an icon for the ages. he same cannot be said for Afri-

can Americans in Texas (or in any other southern state in 1956) who sought

to break through the color line, especially in the area of public schools. hese

trailblazers sought neither fortune nor fame but rather an education for their

children in appropriately outitted classrooms. he battleground over the color

line in Texas regarding school desegregation was located in Mansield, a small

farming hamlet on the southern edge of Fort Worth. Here is a description of

the Mansield school situation for African Americans in the early 1950s:

The Mansield Colored School consisted of two long shabby barracks-style

buildings placed lengthwise, side by side, on a plot of land of West Broad

Street. There was no electricity, running water, or plumbing. Only one

teacher was hired for grades one through eight. Water was hauled in milk

cans from Ben Lewis’ well one-quarter of a mile north of the school by the

teacher with the help of students. Two outhouses sat several feet north of

the buildings. There was very little equipment, no lagpole, no fence around

the playground, and no school bus. . . . Black children in the ninth through

twelfth grades had no school. 4

African American citizens in Mansield worked throughout the 1950s to

put an end to segregated schools and the color barrier, but to no avail. he

U.S. Supreme Court ruling in Brown v. Board of Education in 1954 was not

enough for white citizens to end segregation. In fact, white community mem-

bers and members of the school board in Mansield steadfastly resisted any

eforts to comply with Brown. To move the cause of school desegregation

forward, Texas NAACP members asked L. Cliford Davis, an African Ameri-

can attorney from Fort Worth, to represent African American students in a

legal action against the Mansield School District. Davis iled a class-action

lawsuit in the U.S. Federal District Court in Forth Worth on October 7,

1955, and the case was styled Nathaniel Jackson, a minor et al. v. O. C. Rawdon,

et al. 5 In modern parlance, the act of iling this case meant it was “game on”

First Available Cell

Desegregation of the Texas Prison System

C had R . TRulson and Jame s W. maR q uaRT

FoRe WoRd by ben m. CR ouC h

University of Texas Press Austin

Chad R. Trulson, James W. Marquart, Ben M. Crouch - First Available Cell; Desegregation of the Texas Prison System (2009).pdf

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