Dallas Fashion Project

Items

• Mansfield African American Oral History Project, excerpt on when Mansfield finally integrated
  Maggie Jackson Briscoe shares her thoughts on the eventual integration of Mansfield schools.
• Mansfield African American Oral History Project, excerpt on difficulty from Jim Crow laws
  In Mansfield, everyday life for African Americans was made difficult by Jim Crow laws. Tasks as simple as buying a new pair of shoes were not easy for African Americans. They went into the store knowing their size because they were not allowed to try them on beforehand.
• Mansfield African American Oral History Project, integration efforts discussed
  Maggie Jackson Briscoe discusses a conversation she had with a woman in a nursing home about praying about the integration issue.
• Mansfield African American Oral History Project, excerpt about inequity in schools
  McClendon Moody continues to speak about the integration process in Mansfield and what brought about the discussion. The supplies the African American children used were not very good and this gave T.M. Moody the idea to pursue integration. He was harassed and effigies were hung and said to resemble him.
• Mansfield African American Oral History Project, T.M. Moody discussion
  “Mac” Moody brings up T.M. Moody, who was involved in the effort to integrate Mansfield schools. He was harassed because of this, which is explained in the transcript, but he still wanted to fight for equal rights. Although he did not have children, he still fought for the rights of the African American children in Mansfield.
• Mansfield African American Oral History Project, excerpt on treatment by white children
  McClendon Moody discusses going to school before integration began and how white children treated African American children.
• Mansfield African American Oral History Project excerpt discussing slavery
  In this excerpt from the Mansfield African American Oral History project unabridged transcript, the interviewer asked about African Americans' beginnings in Mansfield and how their parents settled in the small town. The times of slavery and how sharecropping was done in this Texas town were discussed in the interview. This brings a beginning to the African American story of Mansfield and how it later built to the crisis in 1956. Sam Solimillo in Mansfield conducted the interview. The interviewees mentioned from this excerpt were, Fred Lawson (F.L.) and Maggie Jackson Briscoe (M.B.).
• Mansfield African American Oral History Project excerpt on integration efforts
  The excerpt discusses part of what led to integration efforts in Mansfield. Deacons of the Bethlehem Baptist Church thought if they were paying taxes in the town and had to pay for their children to ride the buses to Fort Worth to school, there must be a way that they could attend a school near their homes.
• Mansfield African American Oral History Project excerpt on African Americans dealing with discrimination at funeral homes during Jim Crow era.
  This excerpt was taken from the Mansfield African American Oral History Project. The quote shares the differences between African American funeral homes compared to the Anglo funeral homes. This difference was part of Jim Crow in Texas, and African Americans were not allowed to use the same funeral homes as the white Mansfield citizens. They later had to use African American funeral homes in Fort Worth, much like how children had to attend schools in Fort Worth instead of integrating schools in Mansfield.
• "History of Mansfield Education" from 1929 yearbook
  The pages from the year book discuss the history of Mansfield and the beginning of the school system prior to 1956.
• Mansfield African-American Oral History Project
  The oral history project, conducted in December 1995, sheds light onto perspectives that African Americans shared about voting rights, Jim Crow laws, and life in Mansfield in the 1950s. The project was paid for partially through a Certified Local Government grant from the National Park Service, U.S. Department of the Interior, and administered by the Texas Historical Commission. Additional funding was given via matching grants from the Mansfield Historical Society and the Bethlehem Baptist Church congregation.
• Integration plan dated May 12, 1965
  Ten years after the lawsuit to integrate Mansfield High School, in a letter sent to the Office of Health, Education, and Welfare, a plan is laid out for the integration of Mansfield School District. In this plan there is no mention of the high school being integrated, however, in August, three months after this letter is sent to Washington D.C., Mansfield High School is, in fact, finally integrated.
• Mansfield ISD school board minutes, January 26, 1965
  Mansfield ISD school board minutes from a regular meeting held on January 26, 1965, show that a motion was made and seconded to sign the Assurance of Compliance Form H.E.W. 441, complying with the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and that the resolution would be published in the Mansfield News-Mirror see [Mansfield News Mirror, January 29, 1965, School Board to Comply With Civil Rights Order.]