A television news clip about integration challenges in a Fort Worth, Texas, neighborhood, 1956.
News script read when this footage showed on the Texas News, Sunday, September 2, 1956 at 10 PM.
“NEW RACIAL STRIFE IN FORT WORTH”
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Racial strike breaks out anew in a fringe White-Negro residential area in Forth Worth. The trouble starts over the occupancy of a house at 209 North Judkins street in Riverside by the Negro family of Lloyd Austin. The house is the first in the block occupied by Negroes although Negroes reside just three doors away in the 100 block. A white crowd gathers at Riverside Elementary School to hear E. G. Brown call for action against the Austin family. Brown says he doesn’t want violence but suggests a parade of protest in front of the house. About 200 persons attend the meeting, some not residents of the area.
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Jack Lamont of the Diamond Hill area supervises the preparation of signs saying he’s for hanging Negroes. Citizens Council literature is distributed.
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Former City Councilman George Seaman suggests economic pressure to get Austin and his wife fired from their jobs.
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At the same tine, more than 52 dollars is collected from the crowd to help finance whatever action, if any, is taken.
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Then the crowd, carrying its signs, leaves for the Austin residence on Judkins street. Austin, 32, moved with his wife and child into the house yesterday. The crowd, arriving for the most part by automobile, floods the street and sidewalk around the Austin house.
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A friend of the Austins’ comes out of the house, takes two rifles from a car and slowly returns to the home. He crowd, noticeably quiet, retreats up the street.
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But Lamont, with this signs, maintains his stand in front of the house although he says he’s not going up on the lawn. Police arrive and ask Lamont and his friends to move.
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A man identified as Lawrence Peters goes into the Austin home. Peters’ move into the 100-block of Judkins two years ago touched off similar trouble, including the bombing of a car. Negroes now occupy all but one house in the block.
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Two other Negroes go into the Austin home, escorted by a police officer. The crowd stays its distance and jeers.
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Then Brown foes into the house to talk with Austin. He is accompanied by Police Sergeant Ray Briggs.
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Moments later he returns to say Austin is determined to stay in the house. He says his offer to buy the house from Austin was turned down. He says he told Austin he didn’t want violence but that he couldn’t guarantee what others might do.
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A Negro minister, well dressed, arrives at the Austin home. He is taunted and called names by a group of newly-arrived high school students from Polytechnic. As the crowd breaks up, two of the Negroes leave the Austin home and stand aside as the jeering crowd moves by. There is no violence.
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Tonight, more trouble. Less than an hour ago, a gang of about 40 boys gathers in front of the Austin home throwing stones. Fifty other residents of the area stand aside and watch. Several windows in the Austin home are broken by stones and soft drink bottles. No police are in sight. Suddenly a shot is fired and the crowd centers around a car parked directly in front of the home. Bullet holes are found in the hood and the radiator of the car.
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The boys display an effigy they say they tied in a nearby tree. They say a Negro man came out and cut it down. Police finally arrive, the first of 25 officers who block the street with squad cars and begin sending the boys home. Chief Hightower, on the scene, says he thinks the situation is under control—at least for the night.
