The month of June holds consequential significance in Black history in America. Juneteenth – while a celebration of the true realization of freedom for enslaved Black folk across the South – prompts reflection on the unfulfilled promise of equality in the United States. And two weeks prior to the holiday in 2003, litigation on the longest and most significant case in the desegregation of Dallas Schools came to a close.
Dallas schools were desegregated in 1967. At least, that’s what DISD claims even to this day. But in 1970, plumber and father of five Sam Tasby, who passed in 2015, challenged the school district when his sons Eddie Mitchell and Philip Wayne were forced to take the city bus to the nearest Black school. Tasby, frustrated, contacted the school district and questioned why they couldn’t attend the school close by in Oak Lawn. The answer was that the school was whites-only.
First filed in October of 1970 and handled by lawyer Sylvia Demarest, the case argued that segregation remained in Dallas schools long after Brown v. Board of Education. Demarest and Tasby pointed out that institutions maintained strong one-race majorities, with white students attending well-funded white schools and Black/non-white students enrolled in overcrowded minority schools. The school district helped to ensure this through blockbusting, an Anti-Black tactic in city planning used to promote white flight out of fear of minority encroachment. Throughout litigation, additional Black and Hispanic community members joined the case in pursuit of a firm plan to desegregate schools. The driving argument of Tasby v. Moses was that inferiority of resources available to students at Black/non-white schools resulted in poor test scores and thus poorer education.
Brown v. Board of Education states that “separate but equal educational facilities for racial minorities is inherently unequal, violating the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment.” Despite false implications to the contrary by the Library of Congress, states across the country continued to keep schools segregated long after the 1954 ruling. Texas, with its established pattern of pushing back against the advancement of civil rights, was no exception. Dallas’ initiatives toward compliance with the ruling from the Supreme Court were “almost non-existent and grudging at best,” as expressed in the lawsuit. Schools in Dallas were often more than 90% white/non-white, further signifying complacency regarding strong racial divisions.
Eventually, a ruling was made by then presiding Judge William Taylor that the district must make a concerted effort to desegregate schools. The judge implemented a busing strategy, which was poorly received by the Black community as this one-sidedly only bused Black students to white schools. White students against integration were violent in their opposition.
Despite a new busing plan being created by a tri-ethnic committee, integration efforts were largely unsuccessful. Judge Taylor eventually withdrew from the trial, prompting a random draw which led Judge Barefoot Sanders to preside over the case thereafter. Under Sanders, focus shifted to provide more funding Black and non-white schools rather than directly working to promote integration. Previous desegregation remedies for grades 4-8, including modified attendance zones, were still utilized. But systemic remedies to close the educational gap between Black/non-white and white students were actively prioritized.
In 1984, the court directed the school district to open three learning centers in South Dallas for grades 4-6. Learning centers returned previously bused minority students back to schools closer to home and implemented creative educational programs to boost student engagement and achievement levels. Two years later, the Court directed the opening of three additional learning centers in West Dallas. After granting DISD’s motion for unitary status more than a decade earlier, the oversight of the courts was deemed no longer necessary and was dismissed in 2003.
The long legal battle undertaken by Tasby and Demarest helped enact policies to establish some of Dallas’ most impressive magnet programs and more comprehensive measures to prioritize bilingual education. However, when observing schools in Dallas today, the numbers indicate that segregation as defined by the case is still very much alive and well.
Across public schools of DISD, 87.6% of schools are over 90% non-white. Based on this standard, less than 12.5% of DISD schools are truly integrated. At 81.4% of non-white schools in Dallas, more than half of the student body is at risk of dropping out. Students attending predominantly non-white public schools are almost three times as likely to carry a significant risk of drop out than students attending a fully-integrated school. Factors that signify that a student may be at risk of dropping out include stagnation, poor grades, low test scores, teen pregnancy/parenthood, and limited language skills.
Correlations with race are strong. For example, the predominantly non-white Ben Milam Elementary held six-and-a-half times higher risk of dropping out among its students than Lakewood Elementary, a nearby school that is almost 80% white. Ben Milam and Lakewood are about 3.5 miles apart and are located in Districts 14 and 9, respectively.
James Madison High School was converted into a Black school in 1956 after previously serving a white student body. Today, three out of four students at James Madison are at risk of drop out. These patterns are consistent, as only 27.6% of integrated schools in Dallas hold a significant concern for potential drop out among their student body.
As white demographics shrink within public schools, private educational facilities hold a disproportionate share of whites as they comprise around two-thirds of the national student population. Similarly, around 66% of private schools in Texas are predominantly white, with half of the majority-white private schools holding a white student demographic of over 80%. As Dallas hosts over 120 private schools, segregation re-emerges, with private institutions and alternative education emerging as the new vehicles for white flight.
Other historic Black schools of Dallas have fared better in the decades since DISD’s desegregation efforts. Booker T. Washington, a historically Black school nestled near downtown, now earns significant praise as a fully integrated magnet school for the arts. Booker T. Washington also impressively boasts a 99.3% graduation rate. Unfortunately, the vast majority of schools in Dallas do not provide as impressive of resources; but Booker T.’s success represents a powerful example of the potential that historically Black institutions hold when receiving adequate investment.
Twenty-nine years after DISD earned unitary status and 20 years after its vindication in the eyes of the Court, schools remain largely segregated. Guided by parameters that take on a new context in a changing world, Tasby v. Moses did not eradicate systemic oppression in Dallas’ education system. But it laid the groundwork for a more progressive vision in its wake. Dallas’ desegregation efforts, while significant, are only incremental in the greater effort toward equity.
