Integrating the 40 Acres: The 50-Year Struggle for Racial Equality at the University of Texas (review)

246Southwestern Historical QuarterlyOctober The Great Depression brought business disaster and only very narrowly did the Aryains survive. World War II created a great demand but a paucity of goods, but the postwaryears brought long-term prosperity and, for Ed and Etta, a four-monthlong , poignant visit to Ed's homeland—forty-eight years after his intended return in ten. This book of reminiscences began as the Aryain sons quizzed dieir father about his early life. One story led to another as Etta Aryain recorded them by typewriter. Son Edward put events in chronological order and cut repetitious material. Thus was the typescript when it came to editorJ'Nell Pate who, with a light pencil, edited only to smooth literary rough spots. Where necessary to explain or elaborate a point, Dr. Pate cited pertinent sources. She left Ed Aryain to tell his story straightforwardly and charmingly. Immigration, ethnic, and High Plains economic historians should find From Syria to Seminoleofinterest as should local historians ofthe southern High Plains, Gaines County, and especially ofSeminole. And it occurs to this reviewer diat persons who grew up in the homes ofreticent immigrants may find insights into their own family history. General readers will find a treat. West Texas A&M University, EmeritusFrederick W. Rathjen Integratingthe 40 Acres: The50-YearStruggleforRacialEquality at the University ofTexas. By Dwonna Goldstone. (Athens: University of Georgia Press, 2006. Pp. 226. Preface, illustrations, epilogue, notes, selected bibliography, index. ISBN 0820328286. $29.95, cloth.) History textbooks portray the history ofthe civil rights era as a series ofstruggles by African Americans to overcomeJim Crow segregation until the federal government —either via legislative orjudicial action—oudawed die discriminatory practices ; then injustice ended and everyone lived happily ever after. Dwonna Goldstone takes readers beyond this superficial presentation and demonstrates that while de jure segregation may have ended, the struggle to change racist attitudes persists. Goldstone examines the attitudes of people on the University ofTexas campus in the years following the Sweatt v. Painter decision. In 1949 the Supreme Court decided in favor ofHeman Sweatt's petition to enroll in law courses at die University ofTexas. In order to avoid integrating the UT Law School as Sweatt requested, the legislators approved creating another black university, which eventually became Texas Southern in Houston. While Sweatt eventually did enroll at the state's flagship law school, the pressure he encountered forced his eventual withdrawal from UT Law School. Still, Sweatt's victory opened the door for African Americans in graduate schools across the nation and ended the diverse methods the legislature had used to avoid integrating UT and Texas A&M, including sending college-bound African American students to out-of-state colleges and universities. Goldstone's book is deceptively short, yet surprisinglyfull ofvaluable information and insight into the attempt to change the culture of discrimination embedded at UT after World War II. She recreates the cultural milieu at the University ofTexas by mining a variety of sources, including newspaper resources, archival material, 2007Book Reviews247 and reminiscences, to recreate the attitudes about race on campus. Her manuscript sheds light on a curious development: While many students and faculty members worked to make integration a reality at the Austin campus, administrators, regents, and legislators were among those unwilling to accept an integrated University of Texas. Goldstone calls this a "policy of limited integration" (p. ix). Although after Sweatt African American students could enroll and attend classes at the University of Texas, questions arose over whether they could shop at the bookstore, attend movies, live in dormitories, and eat in the dining halls. The story she unravels is not favorable toward Texas's flagship university. The specter of racism was frequendy unseemly, and some ofthe renowned names associated widi UT during the period were not on the side ofintegration. For example, she discusses how die way historians have viewed UT head coach Darrell Royal has changed over the years. Although she refrains from passingjudgment on Royal, she notes that his "reluctance to recruit African Americans [into the athletic program] solidified the black community's image of him as a racist" (p. 131), but she acknowledges that Royal's place in history has improved in recent years. Today, she points out that African American athletes comprise...