Texas Rangers pose in front of effigy at Mansfield High School
Item
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Title
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Texas Rangers pose in front of effigy at Mansfield High School
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Description
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On August 31, 1956 segregationists gathered at the Mansfield High School to prevent African American students from registering for the upcoming school year. The same day Governor Allan Shivers dispatched Texas Rangers to Mansfield as a sign to maintain law and order. The memorandum instructed Colonel Garrison to “arrest anyone, white or colored, whose actions are such as to represent a threat to the peace" (see footnote below). The first day of school and final day of registration was Tuesday, September 4. Captain Crowder dispatched a total of nine Texas Rangers on site that Tuesday morning as a precautionary measure for crowd control (see footnote below). No African American students registered or attended Mansfield High School in 1956.
Bibliography: Robyn Duff Ladino, Desegregating Texas Schools: Eisenhower, Shivers, and the Crisis at Mansfield High (Austin: University of Texas Press, 1996), 102, 111
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Subject
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Texas Rangers stand in front of Mansfield High School, where an effigy of an African American hangs above the front door.
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Source
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Texas State Library and Archives Commission
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Date
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1956
