Desegregation in post-Brown Dallas, Texas: a historical narrative attributing the response and social activism efforts of African American Dallasites, 1950s-1970s
This study examines the role appointed desegregation committees had on the evolution of the public schooling experience in Dallas, Texas during the mid-twentieth century. It has a twofold purpose dating back to the eras commonly referred to as Plessy and Brown, respectively. On May 17, 1954, the Supreme Court of the United States presented to the world its reasoning in the case of Brown v. Board of Education. The Court declared legally segregated public schooling facilities unconstitutional. However, this original decision of the Court failed to enunciate how and when school districts were to end segregated schooling. In a later decision, known as Brown II, the organizational strategies and implementation responsibilities in desegregation plans were designated the responsibility of city leadership, school boards, and local courts of law. Resultantly, this investigation seeks to address the relationship between local culture, civic leaders, and federal requirements, specifically their influence and contribution, as it relates to the legal journey of creating institutionally desegregated facilities. These relationships are investigated to better understand the themes of access and equal opportunity when examining improved schooling conditions in the Dallas Independent School District. Through the use of discourse analysis and narrative storytelling via: interviews, newspapers, handwritten letters, judicial proceedings, judge’s notes, scholastic assessments, audio recordings, and field reports, this investigative study examines how Dallas, a once segregated Southwestern city, responded to the Brown rulings by utilizing organized desegregation strategies and tactics. Though civil rights history on the city of Dallas remains fragmented, this study seeks to fill gaps in the literature pertaining to Texas’ history of discrimination and the desegregation of the Dallas Independent School District.
segregation, desegregation, resegregation, Texas history, Dallas, school, public school, Dallas Independent School District, Brown v Board
University of Illinois - Urbana-Champaign
Networked Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign