PLUMB CHAOS: Segregation and Integration in Deep East Texas

After hard-fought resistance to integration, the federal courts forced the schools in Lufkin, Texas, to integrate on August 31, 1970, under a court order that remained in effect until July 11, 2000. A month earlier, in June 2000, the Lufkin Independent School District Board of Trustees agreed in a 5–0 vote that the district had met all the requirements of desegregation and should be released from the ruling. The two African American members of the board, Willie Mae Burley and Larry Kegler, who had experienced integration as a teacher and student, respectively, were not present for the vote. The