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ChaPTer 1 Broken Barriers Looking up into the ultra-blue sky, members of the crowd strained their eyes to locate the small plane. A large fireball then appeared and the object shot vertical and continued its climb for nearly three minutes. Then the show was over. But something dramatic, history-making, had just occurred and only a few people were privy to the event. The date was September 7, 1956. On this day, famed test pilot Iven Kincheloe flew his X-2 to an altitude of 126,000 feet—to the edge of outer space. He was the first person to reach that altitude and he returned to Earth as a national hero.1 In the same month, another test pilot was the first to fly at three times the speed of sound, but his test plane veered out of control and he died in the crash. The year 1956 was one of major historical significance and involved individuals smashing barriers and crossing lines that had never before been breached. These test flights and a host of other technological breakthroughs shattered important boundaries that kept humans tethered to this planet and helped fuel the space race that would result in some of humankind’s greatest achievements. For most people, the idea of breaking a barrier or smashing through a boundary involves important scientific breakthroughs. Not every barrier, though, requires advanced technology to foster a breakthrough. Some barriers are created as a result of human ingenuity, and sometimes all it takes is one ordinary person to take a chance, to make a move at the right time and in the right place to forever alter a barrier. While most Americans in 1956 were captivated by dueling test pilots, there was a barrier of a different sort that was also being brought down. On June 5, 1956, Elvis Presley sang “Hound Dog” on the Milton Berle television show and wowed the audience with gyrating hip movements that caused a scandal. Beyond his hips, Presley also crossed over the racial divide that existed in America at the time—a barrier main- 4 The Outside tained by rigid segregationist laws and customs in most southern states—a crossing that transfused the white music of the day with black music. Presley was an innovator who opened the doors for a multitude of musicians.2 His melding of white and black music not only defied the staunch segregationist attitudes of the day but led to mixed race audiences and an erosion of the color barrier, particularly among southern youth.3 Elvis Presley crossed the color line without fear and without penalty. His crossing, like most test pilots of the day, made him a legend, a hero, a teen idol, a movie star, and an icon for the ages. The same cannot be said for African Americans in Texas (or in any other southern state in 1956) who sought to break through the color line, especially in the area of public schools. These trailblazers sought neither fortune nor fame but rather an education for their children in appropriately outfitted classrooms.The battleground over the color line in Texas regarding school desegregation was located in Mansfield, a small farming hamlet on the southern edge of Fort Worth. Here is a description of the Mansfield school situation for African Americans in the early 1950s: The Mansfield Colored School consisted of two long shabby barracks-style buildings placed lengthwise, side by side, on a plot of land off West Broad Street. There was no electricity, running water, or plumbing. Only one teacher was hired for grades one through eight. Water was hauled in milk cans from Ben Lewis’ well one-quarter of a mile north of the school by the teacher with the help of students. Two outhouses sat several feet north of the buildings. There was very little equipment, no flagpole, no fence around the playground, and no school bus. . . . Black children in the ninth through twelfth grades had no school.4 African American citizens in Mansfield worked throughout the 1950s to put an end to segregated schools and the color barrier, but to no avail. The U.S. Supreme Court ruling in Brown v. Board of Education in 1954 was not enough for white citizens to end segregation. In fact, white community members and members of the school board in Mansfield steadfastly resisted any efforts to comply with Brown. To move the cause of school desegregation forward,Texas NAACP members asked L. Clifford Davis, an African American attorney...

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