Mansfield School Integration Attempt

August 30, 1956

On this day

August 30, 1956

Mansfield School Integration Attempt

#OTD in 1956 Texas Rangers under J.E. Banks arrived in Mansfield, TX, to help “keep the peace” during the failed attempt to desegregate Mansfield High School. They supported white segregationist mob.

CW: discussions of lynching, racist slurs, use of the n-word

Black-and-white photo of 1950s-era cars parked on either side of a road with crowds of white people. To the right of the road is a yard with school buildings. The effigy of a Black person hangs from a flagpole in the yard. From The Crisis at Mansfield, University of North Texas. — Crowd of Mansfield residents gathered on school grounds during attempt to desegregate Mansfield High School. The effigy of a Black person hangs from a flagpole in the yard. From *The Crisis at Mansfield, University of North Texas.* Photographer: Wilburn Davis

The 5th US Circuit Court of Appeals had ordered Mansfield to desegregate its high school earlier that August, based on lawsuits filed after Brown v Board declared segregated schools unconstitutional. This was the first time a federal court ordered a Texas school to desegregate, and white residents of Mansfield were enraged. A mob blocked the high school, and an effigy of a Black person was hung on Main Street w/ the sign “This would be a horrible way to die.”

Excerpt of a newspaper article describing an effigy of a Black person hung with signs reading “This would be a horrible way to die” and “this Negro tried to enter a white school.” — *Amarillo Daily News,* August 30, 1956.

There were other clear threats of racist violence. The Amarillo Daily News reported that a member of the mob threatened to use guns against students who tried to desegregate the school and threatened to bomb the house of a relative of one of the Black students.

Newspaper clipping describing an effigy of a Black person hung on a flag pole and a white man who threated that “we are gonna have to get guns ourselves” if law enforcement tried to desegregate the high school. — *Amarillo Daily News*, August. 31, 1956.

Newspaper clipping in which T.M. Moody, 50, the uncle of one of the Black students set to integrate the high school recounts a white man threatening “that his house would be blown up unless he left town ‘in 20 minutes.’” He took his wife and mother-in-law out of town and then returned. The house was not attacked. — *Amarillo Daily News,* August 31, 1956.

Gov Allen Shivers refused to uphold the court order. He ordered Rangers to Mansfield but directed them to arrest any Black students who tried to enter the high school. Any Black students who enrolled would be immediately transferred out of the district. Shivers said he refused to use law enforcement “to shoot down or intimidate Texas citizens who are making an orderly protest against a situation instigated and agitated by the [NAACP].”

Black-and-white photo of white men and boys gathered around a white man holding a baby alligator. The people in the crowd hold signs reading “we want segregation” and “we don’t want no [n-word].” — The segregationist crowd enjoys a baby alligator. From *The Crisis at Mansfield*, University of North Texas.

Banks agreed. He said the mob “were just salt-of-the earth citizens who had been stirred up by agitators. They were concerned because they were convinced that someone was trying to interfere with their way of life.” Meanwhile two more effigies appeared on the high school itself. Willie Pigg, the principal, refused to cut them down because he hadn’t put them up.

Black-and-white photograph of white students in 1950-style clothes entering Mansfield High School, a one-story brick building with an arched entrance. An effigy of a Black person is hung from the bullhorn at the top of the arch. — White students enter Mansfield High School under an effigy of a Black person. From *The Crisis at Mansfield*, University of North Texas.

Banks also made no attempt to remove them, resulting in a photograph that defined the situation: a white officer lounging against a tree—and ignoring both explicit, actionable threats of racist violence and his legal duty.

Black-and-white photo of Banks outside of Mansfield High School while the effigy hangs over the main entrance. Banks leans against a tree with one foot resting on the trunk and looks relaxed. — J.E. Banks outside Mansfield High School. From *The Crisis at Mansfield*, University of North Texas.

When it became clear that law enforcement would not protect them, the Black students who planned to enroll decided not to. These students included Gracie Smith, Hattie Neal, Floyd Moody, John Hicks, and Charles Moody. Floyd Mood recalled the experience in this article. The NAACP suspended its efforts a few days later to protect the Black students. Mansfield’s schools remained illegally segregated until after the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

White leaders and residents thought the solution to school desegregation riots like those at Mansfield was to outlaw the NAACP in TX. This interpretation cast the NAACP as outside agitators forcing happy Black Texans to misbehave. This is the same narrative Banks used when he said the white rioters had “been stirred up by agitators.”

Three-page telegram in which Rep. Pool blames the NAACP for the “Mansfield crisis” by “coercing” Black students into registering. He accuses them of looking for “martyrs in their Southern integration scheme” calls for a special session of the TX legislature to investigate.

In fact, Banks’ greatest interventions in the pro-segregation demonstrations were removing so-called agitators: a man distributing “inflammatory literature”—IE pro-integration literature—and an Episcopal priest preaching love for one’s neighbor.

As of August 2023, Banks’ support for a violent, racist mob does make it into his @txrangermuseum bio. According to the museum, his only important actions in 1956 were fun appearances on national TV.

Screenshot of webpage with a short biography of Banks. The sentence about 1956 reads “He had gained national exposure and a bit of celebrity in 1956 when he appeared on national television on the Today Show, Name That Tune, and What’s My Line.” — Texas Ranger Hall of Fame and Museum, accessed August 1, 2023.

Moreover, in November 2022, Russell Molina, chair of the Ranger Bicentennial (texasranger2023.org/cof/) defended Banks’ actions.

See 26:15 of this recording: Texas Ranger Summit 2022: Part 4

Learn more about the crisis in Mansfield in this online exhibit by graduate and undergraduate students at the University of North Texas. Some images in this thread come from this exhibit. Doug Swanson also covers the desegregation attempt in his book Cult of Glory: The Bold and Brutal History of the Texas Rangers, a main source for this thread. See pg. 326-366.

This brief thread by @Ryan_Abt captures the vitriolic racism directed at the Black students and offers observations about the next decade at Mansfield: https://twitter.com/Ryan_Abt/status/1436409702192193542?s=20

In 2020 Texas removed a statue of a Ranger from Love Field because of the Rangers’ brutal history. One specific reason was that the statue was likely modeled on Banks.

The Horrible Truth of Love Field’s Texas Ranger Statue – D Magazine

For more on the brutal and complicated history of the Texas Rangers, follow @Refusing2Forget or explore this blog.

Mansfield School Integration Attempt

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