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Martinez / Community Relations Commission

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Interviewer-"What about Cumberine School?" Mr. Martinez-Cumberline is still there, Cumberline is a hackard right a block from the Fairmont Hotel and it is now the offices of former Governor of Texas Bill Clemons, he's got corporate offices in [?] , still there, beautiful buildings [?] in 1980. Interviewer-"Would you describe some of the kinds off situations [?] with the community relations commission [?]" Mr. Martinez-Well, first of all there is a committee, a dynamic committee and people like Marcus Ranger, lawyer, [?] law school and [?] who was not a board member and we had, first of all we had [?] who served in the first committee, later Steve [?] served. So, we had some incredible leaders from the African American Communitee including Zahn Holmes, we had Trini Garza, [?] Hernandez from the Hispanic Community. So, we were given the latitude by the judge to his eyes and ears of the community in certain categories, the categories, the categories were buses, the categories were school construction [?] majority on minimum transcripts [?] and so we were out in the community, those of us that had flexibilities were Ms. Gillum and myself, we were out more and Randy [?] gave me a lot of latitude. I helped set up Student Community Relations Commission in various high schools so its in North Dallas High School and Skyline, we were in [?], I've seen some of the things that were going on right after the court order was implemented and students and kids walked out of Skyline: African Americans and Hispanics because of racial taunt where African American students had one-way tickets to Africa placed in thier lockers by students, where the proportion of Blacks and Hispanics were being suspended from schools such as Skyline, Woodrow, and [?]. It was a misproportions in terms of those kids being suspended, the majority of those kids were being bust. So, kids were being bust across town and the vast majority of kids were being suspended with the kids of being bust. So, that was a message of being sent and we did a study on that, we came back to the judge with a study on that. So, we reported monthly to the judge and we met with the judge on a monthly basis. Judge William Taylor was one of the most incredible facsinating, intellegent jurors that I've been around, and I've been around quite a few of them, Judge Sanders and others. Judge Taylor was a person with a lot of vision, with a lot strengh and really believed in that, we really believed and needed to desegregate Dallas Public Schools and Noyola [?] did an incredible job also in that way. He had to fight sometimes day by day, a very conservative faction on the school board because he had a school attorney who went with him and a board president and [?] Green that were going to his resist school desegragation as (What was it, one of our famous governors from the south said, "Now and Forevor") we'll they were going to resist segragation now and forevor. I give a lot of credit to Dr. Noylola as a superintendant to be able to navigate those murky waters, but with the judge, with Zahn Holmes leadership, and with the superintenant, we went through that process in the early 70s and then later and [?] of couse, Jack Lowe Sr was a Dallas Alliance and the second one in order......

Interview Interview with Rene Martinez
Subjects Race Relations › Black-Brown Race Relations
Education › Secondary Education
Education › Education and Integration › Busing
Education › Teachers and Administrators
Court Cases › School Desegregation Cases
Tags Cumberland High School, Dallas, TX
Clemens, Bill
Ranger, Marcus
Gilliam, Kathlyn
Bedford, Trini
Holmes, Zan
Garza, Trinidad
Hernandez, Frank
Ratliff, Randy
North Dallas High School, Dallas, TX
Taylor, William
Sanders, Barefoot
Whittam, Warren
Green, John Plath
Wallace, George
Skyline High School, Dallas, TX
Greater Dallas Community Relations Commission
Estes, Nolan
Tasby v. Estes (1976)
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Interview date 2011-09-07
Interview source Documenting the History of the Civil Rights Movement in Dallas County
Interviewees Martinez, Rene
Interviewers Dulaney, W. Marvin
Thomas, Alfred
Locations Dallas, TX
Duration 00:04:38
Citation "Community Relations Commission," from Rene Martinez oral history interview with W. Marvin Dulaney and Alfred Thomas,  September 07, 2011, Dallas, TX, Civil Rights in Black and Brown Interview Database, https://crbb.tcu.edu/clips/6090/race-relations-commission, accessed December 25, 2025