Desegregating Texas schools : Eisenhower, Shivers, and the crisis at Mansfield High / Robyn Duff Ladino.

Includes bibliographical references (pages 181-191) and index.

Foreword / Alwyn Barr -- 1. Pathway to Equality: The Determination to Change -- 2. The Dismantlement of "Separate but Equal" -- 3. The Creed of Segregation and States' Rights in the South with an Emphasis on Texas -- 4. Taking a Stand on School Integration: The Dilemma of President Dwight David Eisenhower during His First Term -- 5. The Mansfield School Integration Case: Jackson v. Rawdon -- 6. A Collision Course: The Crisis at Mansfield High School -- 7. A Significant Aftermath: The Mansfield School Integration Case and Crisis.

Mansfield, Texas, a small community southeast of Fort Worth, was the scene of an early school integration attempt. In this book, Robyn Duff Ladino draws on interviews with surviving participants, media reports, and archival research to provide the first full account of the Mansfield school integration crisis of 1956. Ladino explores how power politics at the local, state, and federal levels ultimately prevented the integration of Mansfield High School in 1956. Despite the short-term failure, however, the Mansfield school integration crisis helped pave the way for the successful integration of Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas, in 1957. Thus, it deserves a permanent place in the history of the civil rights movement, which this book amply provides.