The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 95, July 1991 - April, 1992 Page: 55
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Desegregation of the Hamilton Park School
the Stults Road School, southeast of the all-black school. The HEW also
wanted to close the Hamilton Park junior high, dispersing its students
among three other junior highs. Taylor seized upon the junior high
closing to fashion a compromise. His order closed the junior high, a
move he said the RISD "more or less agreed to." He rejected the pairing
of elementary students in favor of "protecting" Hamilton Park parents
and students by keeping the elementary pupils at the neighborhood
school. Akin agreed, saying that there was no objection to transporting
older students but that "these little kiddos" should not be bused. Taylor
limited his criticism of the RISD, "a fine school district," to its highly
segregated faculty and staff. The rest of the order included the stan-
dard fare in school desegregation cases. A majority to minority transfer
policy and nondiscriminatory programs were required, as well as a
biracial committee and elaborate systems of notification to parents and
reports to the court.24
Both sides did well by Taylor's order. Closing the junior high was in
fact a favor to the RISD, which could plead a court order rather than
face the unpalatable choices of closing the school itself, bringing whites
into it, or working out some other means of expanding its offerings.
The DOJ was denied its plan, but it savored a victory of sorts. Statistics
were critical in the post-Green years, and the RISD's desegregation sta-
tistics improved after 1970. Integrating about 280 junior high students
into three other schools decreased the number of black children at the
Hamilton Park School, as well as the percentage of all RISD black stu-
dents there. But a qualified victory for the DOJ did not translate into
success for the Hamilton Park residents. They were unable either to
persuade the school district to expand and preserve the junior high, or
to prevent the district court from closing it. The command of Green,
that blacks should not bear the burdens of desegregation, availed them
nothing. Nor had the school district won a final victory. Hamilton Park
remained a segregated school, vulnerable to continued legal action.'
The final moves toward the Pacesetter program occurred in the con-
text of integration as it developed to 1974. The Supreme Court's Swann
decision of April 1971 explicitly condoned busing as a device of deseg-
regation. By accepting the reasoning of previous decisions it dealt a
21Order, W M. Taylor, Jr., Aug 2o, 1970, U S v RISD, transcript of proceedings, Aug. 20o,
24, 1970, ibid ; Taylor obituary, Dallas Mormning News, June 19, 1985
25Transcript, Aug. 24, 1970, US v RISD, 134, i36, Order, W M. Taylor,Jr, Sept 10, 1970,
ibid. For the command, see Green v County School Board, Supreme Court Reporter, 88A, p. 1693.
For alternatives to closing, see n 14; and "Hamilton Park Evaluation Committee, Apr 22-23,
1969," folder H E W.--1965-68 (RISD archives) See also John Roberts, Interview by William
H. Wilson, Dec 15, 1987, interview OH 716, transcript (UNTOHC).
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Texas State Historical Association. The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 95, July 1991 - April, 1992, periodical, 1992; Austin, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth117153/m1/83/?q=yaqui: accessed April 25, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Texas State Historical Association.