Lyida regalado
campus editor

An understanding of the laws and cases that paved the way for the desegregation of North Texas schools proves knowledge truly is power and provides an important aspect in understanding past, current and possible future issues surrounding racial inequality. 

In 2003, Dallas Independent School District (DISD) was finally declared desegregated, according to Tasby v. Moses.

Lawyer and Civil Rights Activist Thurgood Marshall pioneered Black rights as part of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. He was part of the team in 1954 which successfully argued Brown v. Board of Education in the U.S. Supreme Court. This landmark decision reinforced decision of Plessy v. Ferguson’s “separate but equal” doctrine in 1896 had no place in public education.

When three students were denied enrollment in Mansfield High School in 1956 based on their race, they took the school board to court in Jackson v. Rawdon, where it was declared the district needed time to desegregate as the citizens were “struggling with the traditions of generations.” The decision was reversed and remanded with the declaration “that plaintiffs have the right to admission to, and to attend, Mansfield High School on the same basis as members of the white race…” 

In 1971, Tasby v. Estes pointed out the inequality that continued in DISD, where according to case evidence, 70 schools were 90% or more white, 40 schools were 90% or more black and 49 schools were 90% or more minority. The result was an order which instructed DISD to report back to the court on an annual basis so their desegregation efforts could be monitored. 

Education is an important key in continuing to address issues such as why incarceration and sentences are higher for Blacks, and finding solutions to the rising wage gaps between Blacks and whites, which were higher in 2019 than 2000, according to the Economic Policy Institute’s 2019 wage report.