Interesting article on DISD's desegregation efforts (Houston, Dallas: house, transferring to, neighborhoods) - Texas (TX) - Page 2 - City-Data Forum

BigDGeek · 05-30-2009, 07:36 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by TXNGL

Yes, that's what I meant. Interesting article. I wasn't aware of how the lines were drawn. Are you familiar with McShann street in North Dallas? South of LBJ and runs (I think??) between Preston and Hillcrest. It was built as a black middle-class neighborhood. I wonder where those kids went to school back then?

Good question; that neighborhood is zoned to W.T. White now but it used to go to Hillcrest.

FarNorthDallas · 05-30-2009, 08:25 AM

How timely. Was chatting with a dad at my son's private school yesterday (our last day in private, heading to public high school) and he was in DISD in the late 1970s and he was so traumatized by what he experienced - which he called busing, not to mention had several racially based physical altercations at school, literally feared for his life and he was a big football player, he said he would never ever under any circumstance send his kids to any public school.

He was shocked to learn that in our area high schools at that time - JJ Pearce and Richardson - nothing like that was going on. Pearce was all white and Richardson was naturally integrated. Had his parents just moved 10-15 miles up the road, he could have avoided all that. This Dad lives in the DISD school zone now, but would never use the schools based on his experience 30 years ago.

TXNGL · 05-30-2009, 08:38 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by FarNorthDallas

How timely. Was chatting with a dad at my son's private school yesterday (our last day in private, heading to public high school) and he was in DISD in the late 1970s and he was so traumatized by what he experienced - which he called busing, not to mention had several racially based physical altercations at school, literally feared for his life and he was a big football player, he said he would never ever under any circumstance send his kids to any public school.

He was shocked to learn that in our area high schools at that time - JJ Pearce and Richardson - nothing like that was going on. Pearce was all white and Richardson was naturally integrated. Had his parents just moved 10-15 miles up the road, he could have avoided all that. This Dad lives in the DISD school zone now, but would never use the schools based on his experience 30 years ago.

I think it was traumatic for a lot of Dallas kids, black and white. Neither had much experience with the other. Things are so different now. First, these kids are no longer completely alien to each other. Second, most of the public school kids in my area are Hispanic.

TXNGL · 05-30-2009, 08:41 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by BigDGeek

Good question; that neighborhood is zoned to W.T. White now but it used to go to Hillcrest.

I've tried some searching but all I keep coming up with about historical McShann Road are articles from the DMN archives. Don't want to pay for them! I don't know why there isn't more out there, I think it's a very interesting part of Dallas history.

BigDGeek · 05-30-2009, 09:10 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by TXNGL

I've tried some searching but all I keep coming up with about historical McShann Road are articles from the DMN archives. Don't want to pay for them! I don't know why there isn't more out there, I think it's a very interesting part of Dallas history.

Me too, I think it would be great if someone wrote a book about it. It's a very pretty street too.

Grainraiser · 05-30-2009, 09:13 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Lakewooder

Grainraiser which schools were these?

I know SOC went from white to black practically overnight but I am not sure of the year -- '69 or '70?

Not sure about Roosevelt. Carter went from all-white to black pretty fast around '75 or '76. Then Kimball did the same in the mid-80s. It sort of spread south from the older to the newer schools - Carter was a white flight school for SOC then the whites went to Duncanville. Samuell started going minority so the whites went to Spruce - then it changed.. I know this sounds crazy to those who didn't live through it.

Adamson had a fair number of blacks in the very early 70s. Sunset did not have much of a black population but I think there weren't many in its traditional district.

I can remember the white kids in North Dallas schools giving us grief for going to 'a minority school' in the 70s. We stuck around but they didn't when change came to their schools. So much for their loyalty...

Not sure about SOC but Carter started to turnover around 1974. I lived in Carter school district but they changed it in 1975. Like you stated the whites migrated to Duncanville in droves in the late 70's. They stuck around Kimball longer but started to move out and were gone by 1982. What find shocking is that I could have went to just about any highschool in Dallas on a minority to majority transfer during the late 70's. Today I could not go to any of them.

Grainraiser · 05-30-2009, 09:21 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by TXNGL

I think it was traumatic for a lot of Dallas kids, black and white. Neither had much experience with the other. Things are so different now. First, these kids are no longer completely alien to each other. Second, most of the public school kids in my area are Hispanic.

This is so true. I went to nice diverse Jr. highschool (WH Atwell) during the 7th grade. I was then sent to Boude Storey which was all lower income black. I can remember stepping off the bus and the first thing I saw was burglar bars on the windows

. Many fights broke out because they were not happy to see us. None of us who played football at our old school played at the new one because it pretty much hand to hand combat. It was a shocking experience.