TYLER, Texas — Brown vs. Board of Education of Topeka was a 1954 landmark Supreme Court ruling that led to the end of racial segregation in schools.
Like other parts of the country, the ruling had a ripple effect in East Texas. It took Tatum ISD 13 years to integrate Mayflower High into the district.
Clifford Harkless is the son of the late Mayflower Panthers head football coach Algie P. Harkless and attended the school prior to integration.
“You’re no longer at Mayflower so you need to take at least one day a week and have lunch with a different culture, different background,” Harkless said.
Coach Harkless led his all-Black team to become state finalists in 1966.
“He coached me but he never put us out in the forefront," Harkless said. "We had to earn everything that we achieved and when you earn it, the people behind you, they're gonna respect it.”
During the 2022 football season, the Tatum Eagles became the Mayflower Panthers for one game, 55 years after desegregation.
Weeks later, the Gladewater Bears honored the city’s all-Black high school football team, the Weldon Bumblebees. Weldon high integrated with the Gladewater district in 1969.
“Football has transformed America more than anything," Gladewater head coach Jonny Louvier said. "The same guys get in the huddle and they have the same goal and color doesn't matter.”
Weldon wasn't just the all-Black football team, they dominated for decades with 11 district championships and 3-time state finalists. Current players are still in direct lineage to segregation and attended Weldon themselves, but in it's transformed version, which is now the elementary school.
“I had two grandparents they both graduated from Weldon," junior quarterback Kyron Wilson said. "It hits close to home with me especially to go out there and represent the school they played so hard for.”
Segregation is a symbol of inequality in US history, yet through all the adversity, Black Americans still made a way.
“Because we were segregated, it did not mean when didn't have things going on for ourselves,” Dr. Orenthia Mason said. “We were a community, we lived among our doctors, our lawyers, our preachers. Our store was Black-owned, our cleaners was Black-owned our photographer was Black, all we knew were Black leaders.”
Dr. Orenthia Mason is a longtime Black leader in Tyler, and a member of the last class of Emmett J. Scott high school.
Emmett J. Scott was the all-Black school in North Tyler that was also dominant on the football field, winning the state title in 1968.
“We are the last of the Bulldogs," Dr. Mason said. "It is an honor to represent Emmett J. Scott high school because of the great education that we all received. They sent us out to be successful men and women.”
Emmett J. Scott didn't close until 1970, 16 years after the federal ruling. According to the Tyler Loop, after years of delay by white school officials, immediate desegregation had to be imposed by U.S. District Judge William Wayne Justice.
“I think it's important that we don't forget it," Dr. Mason said. "Young folks, learn your history, ask your parents and your grandparents before they die, who you are and where you come from.”