Martinez / Success of Court Order to Desegregate
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Interviewer-"Do you think the court order achieved most of the subjectives or when you look at the schools today, I know that the order was removed a few years ago and the district was taken out from court supervision, but do you think the court order achieved most of the objectives that it was set out [?] court orders?" Mr. Martinez- Well, you have to look at it in terms, the first court order was one of the luminous students and it did that, cause we did had substantial number of students at schools that were predominately white and integrated and, of course, we had white flight also. So, schools like Carter, and Hillcrest, and Woodrow, Brian Adams, and W. T. White were integrated, integrated, instead of segregated, but integrated and their were educational programs, but not a lot. The bilingual program started, with the first quarter. Now, the quarter of 76, 77, 78, that one had a tremendous number of educational reforms, it had the magnet schools, so, if you look at the magnet schools, you know, dream of a magnet schools by Jack Miller and Dave Fox, Jack Lowe, and I visit the magnet schools everyday and I was fullfilled. You know, we had one of the top best schools in Science, Engineering, and talented gifted in the nation. I was at the arch [?] last week and I was telling one of the counselors there, two of the councelors that, that was the dream of Jack Miller who's the chairmen of that effort to implement the magnets. The dream of having a school of kids all races, all ethnicities would be able to become and not only get the best in performing arts, but also have the best academic training, and guess what? The ArchMagnet is an exemplary school cause it has the combination of great academics and great arch. So, the ones in [?], the six schools [?] all doing extremely well. The magnets were, the vision was there and fulfilled. The early learning centers, I think were fulfilled also. In the context of that, the bilingual program was expanding and we now have duel language in 50 schools for kids: African Americans, Hispanics, Whites-two languages and becoming bi-literate, not bilingual, biliterate, so that program was expanded. The issue of, you may remember, [?] the 444420 concept, we never woul've been in, if it hadn't been for Noyola [?] He implemented it, he brought in the first Latino administrators into the Central Administration Office and it was because of the court order, because of the commitment of Noyola [?] African American superintendants that later became superintendant, Otto [?] and Dr. Edwards, that never would have happened if it hadn't been for the 444420. The singleton racial, part of the first quarter and continued the second, in terms of hiring more African American teachers and then later, Hispanic teachers. So the elements, those elements are there, the construction of schools, curriculum, if someone really wants to study what those court orders did, I think overall, they were very successful. Now, could we say in 1976 or 71 that the demographics would've changed, so dramatically, so we at a school district in 71 that was 35/45% African American, 80% Hispanic, and now, the demographics have changed in ways and now we have a school district that is 70% Latino and about 23% African American and that is 6% other, where we have been able to project that, absolutely not, cause if somebody have said I can't believe it, I won't believe it this happened, so in context to demographics, those are the challenges that we are now having to face, to look at the change in demographics and how do you address the needs of change in demographics, do we need to accept the demographics, do we embrace it, and as educators learned how to address the change in demographics or do we deny and stay in the state of denial about the changes in demographics? So, those are our changes and thats for everyone, not just one ethic racial......
| Interview | Interview with Rene Martinez |
| Subjects | Race Relations › Anglo-Mexican Race Relations |
| Race Relations › Black-White Race Relations | |
| Race Relations › Black-Brown Race Relations | |
| Education › Secondary Education | |
| Education › Education and Integration | |
| Education › Teachers and Administrators | |
| Court Cases › School Desegregation Cases | |
| Law and Public Policy › Bilingual Education | |
| Tags | Miller, Jack |
| Fox, Dave | |
| Estes, Nolan | |
| Friday, Otto | |
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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 | 00:05:05 |
| Citation | "Success of Court Order to Desegregate," 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/6091/success-of-court-order-to-desegregate, accessed December 24, 2025 |