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Desegregation in Austin

Five Decades of Social Change: A Timeline

This web project presents an annotated chronology of major events in the desegregation of Austin, Texas, from 1940 to 1980 as they appeared in local newspapers and other materials such as the Austin Files (AF) in the archives at the Austin History Center, Austin Public Library. The timeline is intended as a guide to key events necessary for an understanding of this extraordinary time in the city’s history.

 

 

Key
Local African American firsts Local African American firsts
University of Texas at Austin (UT) facts University of Texas at Austin (UT) facts
Local desegregation facts Local desegregation facts
Statewide desegregation facts Statewide desegregation facts
National desegregation facts National desegregation facts

Note: The Austin American-Statesman newspaper had several name changes over the five decades covered in this timeline. The variations reflect usage for that time—Austin Statesman, The Austin Statesman, The Austin-Statesman, The Austin American, The Austin American-Statesman, American Statesman, The American-Statesman, Austin American-Statesman.

overview | 1940s | 1950s | 1960s | 1970s | 1980s | all

1950 | 1951 | 1953 | 1954 | 1955 | 1956 | 1957 | 1958 | 1959

1950

Local desegregation facts Bergstrom Air Force Base’s “Negro” baseball players are informed that they can not play in an exhibition game against the Austin High School Maroons being held at House Park athletic field. The game is cancelled because of a deed restriction prohibiting African Americans from participating in sports activities there. [AF-Segregation-Public Schools-S1700 (2)-1950s; The Austin Statesman, “Baseball Game Off on Account of ‘Color’ Line,” April 06, 1950]
University of Texas at Austin (UT) facts After four and one half years of legal battles, Heman Marion Sweatt registers at The University of Texas at Austin. [AF-Segregation-Public Schools-S1700 (1)-University of Texas; The Austin Statesman, “Sweatt Signed at Law School,” September 19, 1950]

1951

Local desegregation facts Follow this link to Austin History Center photograph PICA 13551 Austin City Council abolishes racial segregation in the Main Library and the Carver Branch Library in December. [AF-Segregation-Public Schools-S1700 (2)-1950s; The Austin Statesman, “New Libraries Held Needed,” December 28, 1951]

1953

University of Texas at Austin (UT) facts August Novel Swain (1927-2006) becomes first African American to receive a master’s degree from the School of Social Work at The University of Texas at Austin. [Austin American-Statesman, Obituaries, May 26, 2006]
Local desegregation facts Follow this link to Austin History Center photograph PICA 28695 Harry Akins, owner of the Night Hawk Restaurant, is “instrumental in the desegregation of most of Austin’s major restaurants.” [AF-Segregation-Public Schools-S1700 (2)-1950s; The Austin American, “Akins Opposes Hasty Actions,” October 02, 1953]
Local desegregation facts Mrs. Myrtle Washington is arrested for refusing to move to the rear of the bus when asked by an Austin Transit Company bus driver. The Austin Chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) represents Mrs. Washington who is charged with violating the 1945 Jim Crow law requiring Blacks to sit at the rear of the bus. [AF-Civil Rights-National Association for the Advancement of Colored People-C4600 (1); The Austin American, “Jim Crow Test Looms in Arrest,” August 01, 1953]

1954

Local desegregation facts Follow this link to Austin History Center photograph ND-56-A022 The Austin Chapter of the NAACP draws up petitions asking for the “immediate abolition” of segregation in Austin public schools. [AF-Segregation-Public Schools-S1700 (2)-1954; The Austin American, “School Desegregation Drive Looms,” July 08, 1954]

1955

University of Texas at Austin (UT) facts Follow this link to Austin History Center photograph PICA 12483 In a unanimous decision, The University of Texas Board of Regents votes to admit African American undergraduate students starting in the fall semester, 1956. [AF-Segregation-Public Schools-S1700 (1)-University of Texas; The Austin-Statesman, “U.T. Regents Vote To Admit Negroes,” July 08, 1955]
Local desegregation facts The Austin School Board orders that racial barriers be removed at the city’s high schools. [AF-Segregation-Public Schools-S1700 (2)-1950s; The American-Statesman, “Change Starting At Top,” August 09, 1955]
Statewide desegregation facts Governor Allan Shivers warns Texas school districts that if they desegregate, they may be “jeopardizing the funds they are eligible to receive under the Gilmer-Aikin program if integration is prematurely effected.” [AF-Segregation-Public Schools-S1700 (2)-1950s; The Austin Statesman, “Schools Risk Fund Loss by Integration,” August 21, 1955]
Local desegregation facts African American couples attend the first integrated dance jointly sponsored by Stephen F. Austin and McCallum High Schools. “There was no mixed dancing reported.” [AF-Segregation-Public Schools-S1700 (2)-1950s; The American-Statesman, “Negro Couples Attend McCallum-SFA Dance,” September 11, 1955]
Statewide desegregation facts On Oct. 7, L. Clifford Davis, an African American lawyer from Fort Worth, files a class action lawsuit in the United States Federal Court requesting the integration and admittance of black high school students into Mansfield High School, in Mansfield, Texas just southeast of Fort Worth. [Ladino, Robyn Duff, Desegregating Texas Schools: Eisenhower, Shivers, and the Crisis at Mansfield High. 1997]
Local desegregation facts Arthur De Witty, public relations officer for the Austin Chapter of the NAACP in Austin, secures an attorney to aid in the case of Mrs. Howellen Taylor who has been charged with “violating the state Jim Crow Law” by refusing a driver’s request to move to the back of the bus. [AF-Segregation-Public Schools-S1700 (2)-1950s; The Austin Statesman, “Segregation On Busses Gets Appeal,” December 16, 1955]
Local desegregation facts An Interstate Commerce Commission order ended segregation on interstate trains and busses in Texas. [AF-Segregation-Public Schools-S1700 (2)-1950s; The Austin American, “ICC Order ‘Integrates’ Terminals,” December 26, 1955]
Local desegregation facts Austin Chapter of the NAACP public relations officer, Arthur DeWitty, announces the intention of the organization to take the case of Mrs. Howellen Taylor to the Texas Supreme Court in an attempt to get clarification of the law on segregation on public conveyances “if necessary.” [AF-Segregation-Public Schools-S1700 (2)-1955; The Austin American, “NAACP Pushes City Test Case,” December 26, 1955]
National desegregation facts In December, Rosa Parks refuses to give up her seat to a white man, an event that sparked the Montgomery, Alabama, bus boycott and the beginning of the Civil Rights Movement [Timelines of African-American History: 500 Years of Black Achievement by Thomas Dale Cowan and Jack Maguire, 1995]

1956

Statewide desegregation facts On June 7, the United States Supreme Court and the Texas Supreme Court upheld and supported the constitutional rights of African American teenagers to attend Mansfield High School. On August 27, the Federal District Court ordered Mansfield ISD to “immediately integrate the high school.” [Ladino, Robyn Duff, Desegregating Texas Schools: Eisenhower, Shivers, and the Crisis at Mansfield High. 1997]
Local desegregation facts Travis County attorney dismisses test case challenging segregated busses in Texas. [AF-Segregation-Public Schools-S1700 (2)-1950s; The Austin American, “Austin Bus Test Case Dismissed,” February 14, 1956]
University of Texas at Austin (UT) facts The University of Texas’s Inter-Co-op Council voted unanimously to accept African American students in cooperative housing. [AF-Segregation-Public Schools-S1700 (1) -University of Texas; The Austin Statesman, “UT CO-OP Council Votes Integration: Negroes Acceptable In Housing,” March 07, 1956]
Local desegregation facts Because of the fire at Allan Junior High School, the desegregation of Austin’s junior high schools is delayed for a year. [AF-Segregation-Public Schools-S1700 (2)-1950s; The Austin Statesman, “Junior High Segregation To Continue Next Year,” May 15, 1956]
Local desegregation facts Thirteen African American students become the first to integrate Austin’s high schools-seven at Stephen F. Austin High; five at William B. Travis High; and one at A.N. McCallum High. [AF-Segregation-Public Schools-S1700 (2)-1950s; The Austin Statesman, “3 High Schools Get 13 Negroes,” September 2, 1955]

1957

Statewide desegregation facts The status of school desegregation in Texas is described as “remarkably quiet.” Houston, Dallas, and Fort Worth continue to be segregated with integration lawsuits pending. [“Integration: It’s Slow, ‘Remarkably Quiet,’” c. 1957]
University of Texas at Austin (UT) facts University of Texas student Barbara Smith (today Barbara Smith Conrad) is removed from the lead role in the opera “Dido and Aeneas” because she is black. [AF-Segregation-Public Schools-S1700 (1) -University of Texas; The Austin American, “In U.T. Opera Role: Negro Silent About Ouster,” May 8, 1957]
Local desegregation facts Integration of Austin’s junior high schools is postponed again due to overcrowding. [AF-Segregation-Public Schools-S1700 (2)-1950s; The Austin Statesman, “Crowed Schools Delay Junior High Integration: Board Postpones Act Until Situation Eases,” June 11, 1957]

1958

Statewide desegregation facts Bishop John E. Hines of the Episcopal Diocese of Texas calls for racial integration and equality in local congregations and in Episcopalian schools and camps. [AF-Segregation-Public Schools-S1700 (2)-1950s; The Austin-American, “Integrated Schools, Camps, Hines Plea,” January 25, 1958]
Local desegregation facts With the approval of the Episcopal Diocese of Texas, Trustees of St. Stephen’s School in Austin vote to admit students of all races. [AF-Segregation-Public Schools-S1700 (2)-1950s; The American-Statesman, “St. Stephen’s Get Approval To Integrate,” January 26, 1958]
Local desegregation facts When fourteen-year-old Sandra Kay Hall is admitted into Allan Junior High, she became the first African American in Austin to attend a white junior high school. [AF-Segregation-Public Schools-S1700 (2)-1950s; The Austin American, “Up 1003: Schools Open For 27,505,” September 03, 1958]

1959

Local African American firsts Louis Major Barrow, employee of American National Bank, becomes first African American in Austin to man a teller window. [AF-Segregation-Public Schools-S1700 (2)-1950s; Austin American-Statesman, “Rough Road is Traveled,” April 29, 1984]
Local African American firsts The Delta Xi Chapter of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc. is the first black Greek Letter Organization established at The University of Texas at Austin, May 16. [AF-Alpha Kappa Alpha-A1300 (27)]