The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 95, July 1991 - April, 1992 Page: 50
598 p. : ill. (some col.), maps, ports. ; 23 cm.View a full description of this periodical.
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Southwestern Hzstorzcal Quarterly
schools, compared to only 7,000 integrated blacks in the 1962-1963
year. These developments would save neither Richardson nor most
other Lone Star districts from continued demands from the HEW, the
Department of Justice (DOJ), and black parents acting for themselves
or through the attorneys of the NAACP."
The RISD board, administration, and legal counsel adopted a defen-
sive strategy including compliance with the racially neutral Civil Rights
Act of 1964, staunch resistance to any change in the Hamilton Park at-
tendance zone, and the doctrine of local opposition to federal inter-
ference. The district fought federal urgings and the Hamilton Park
residents' pleas to send white children to the Hamilton Park School. Its
position was popular with the Richardson majority, but it failed because
the federal bureaucracy and the courts moved beyond racial neutrality
to mandate that race itself be an index of desegregation. Ultimately,
only the destruction of Hamilton Park's racial exclusiveness would sat-
isfy the federal judiciary.
The struggle went through three phases. The first ended with an
agreement to close the Hamilton Park high school and begin token fac-
ulty desegregation. This phase began in April and May 1966, when the
board decided not to sign the new HEW compliance form mandating
increased student and faculty desegregation. Through a series of tele-
phone calls, letters, and personal meetings the HEW attempted to mol-
lify the RISD and persuade it to sign the new form. The HEW wanted a
compromise partly because it faced rising Congressional opposition to
its aggressive desegregation policy. Moreover, it found an acceptable
alternative to desegregating Hamilton Park. The racial imbalance in
the RISD could be lessened by closing the Hamilton Park high school
and dispersing its students and faculty among the two other high
schools. The district also sought a compromise. It found itself increas-
ingly isolated, first by the Texas Education Agency, which sided with
the HEW, and second, by court decisions accepting the HEW guide-
lines as a new judicial standard imposed upon all school districts. In the
spring of 1967 the two sides agreed on a settlement closing the high
school after the 1968-1969 year and quieting the HEW's threat of a
noncompliance hearing."
"Barr, Black Texans, 208. See also "The Public Schools Comply," Texas Observer, LVIII
(Oct. 28, 1966), 2-3
14The struggle may be recapitulated from the RISD archives. Key material includes James A.
Knox to J.J. Pearce, Apr. 2o, 1966, folder Health Education Welfare No. 1; Henry D Akin, Jr.,
to Jack W. Evans, Apr 2o, 1966, folder Health, Education, Welfare No. i (copies), clipping,
Dallas Tzmes Herald, Oct. 6, 1966, folder Federal Funds, "Minutes of Meeting Between Officials
of H E.W and R.I.S D. and Counsel, 16 January 1967," folder H E.W--1965-68, Albert T
Hamlin to Akin, Mar. 27, 1968, untitled green folder; and "Plan for Improving the Educational
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Texas State Historical Association. The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 95, July 1991 - April, 1992, periodical, 1992; Austin, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth117153/m1/78/: accessed May 4, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Texas State Historical Association.