In 1955, the Mansfield Independent School District was segregated and still sent its Black children to separate, run down facilities, despite the Brown v. Board of Education court decision in 1954.
Although other districts in Texas desegregated quietly that fall, the mayor and police chief of Mansfield did not approve of this measure.
[1] Texas Governor Allan Shivers was a noted segregationist and used the power of his office to resist implementation of Brown v. Board of Education.
Shivers dispatched Texas Rangers to prevent integration, led by Captain Jay Banks, who, in addition to threatening to arrest Black students, refused to take down an effigy of a Black man hanging by a noose at the entrance of Mansfield High School.
[2] Shivers then authorized the Mansfield Independent School District to send its Black students to Fort Worth, Texas.