The Crisis at Mansfield

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.

Maggie Jackson Briscoe shares her thoughts on the eventual integration of Mansfield schools.

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.]

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.