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ft?WiTC..a4 rifOWF.Y4’r St; kt IMTing:1″ *..044t;tirt ,T11.:0,11\(1* t.. 1; Da ve Prec ht A magnificent new history in the States and the Nation series Texas By Joe B. Frantz “Just as it would he hard to find anyone better to do the job, it would be hard to find a more successful, compact yet immensely readable synthesis, designed for the general reader than this volume in a distinguished series of short histories of each state in the nation… Frantz has done both himself and the state proud. “Dallas News “He has achieved his task with verve and urbanity. –Wchita hills Times “Four hundred years of history, from Cabeza de Vaca to John Connallytales of the Alamo, cowboys, Indians, oil barons, ins and outs of Texas politics, ups and downs of art and culture, and the quirks and foibles of Texans themselves all find space in Joe Frantz’s history of the Lone Star State. –Houston Post Illus . with maps and photo essay. 58.95 at all bookstores, or order direct W.W. NORTON & COMPANY, INC. Please send me .1″FAAS by Joe B. refund. I enclose S._ __check or numey order. Name Address Cite State & Zip Please add applicable sales lax TO3 seek secession. The result, if carried to an extreme, would be to leave the HISD with a student body almost completely black.” When the injunction expired last year, Connally was dead and Noel refused to hold a hearing on the merits of the federal case against Westheimer until the controversy had run its course in state courts. Noel is one of the judges Reagan characterizes as “friendly” to the Westheimer cause. \(It was reported last fall that Noel’s two sons were transferred from an integrated Houston high school to a nearby all-white school in Spring Branch, where they were enrolled Quality education WISD’s agreement to cooperate with the present integration order is no great concession because the plans drawn up for Houston are far more palatable to segregationists than are the court orders covering many other Texas cities. While more than 40 percent of Houston’s 235 schools are classified as segregated \(more than 90 percent white, black, Mexican-American, or black and at present required to do no more than carry out voluntary enrollment programs like magnet schools and majority-tominority transfers. But if the courts were to order more stringent desegregation plans for Houston, WISD would oppose them. “To the extent that any court orders require large numbers of Westheimer students to be bused out of our district, we would have failed to achieve our primary goal of providing quality education for our students,” says Coolidge. Westheimer’s potentially harmful effects on desegregation helped shape former U.S. Atty. Gen. Edward Levi’s opposition to the breakaway. His voting WISD schools under integration plans would be overwhelmed in any effort to contribute to school policy-making decisions. WISD ignored the objection, which was filed on Jan. 13, and held the election two days later. \(HISD had been stymied in its efforts to enjoin the election through Judge Noel, who decided on Sept. 20, 1975, that the federal court would take no action until state appeals were completed. HISD attorneys couldn’t appeal Noel’s order until he put it in writing which he delayed doing picked seven secessionist-minded trustees from among twenty conservative HISD Administration Building candidates, only two of whom were opposed to the breakaway \(both wound up approved two propositions to set a tax rate and assume a share of HISD’s bonded indebtedness by votes of 8,739 to 1,349 and 8,651 to 1,365, respectively. About a fourth of qualified voters turned out. Under provisions of the Voting Rights Act of 1975, Justice Department lawyers filed suit afterwards to void the election. Levi refused to okay the WISD election in January because Westheimer officials failed to prove that the new district would not discriminate against blacks and Spanish-speaking children. rights office refused to grant preclearance for the WISD election in January because Westheimer officials failed to prove that the new district would not discriminate against blacks and Spanish-speaking children in the HISD. The Justice Department considered complaints that the breakaway comes just as blacks are beginning to gain a voice in the school affairs of Houston, where three of the district’s seven trustees are black. Moreover, it is argued that parents of minority children sent to Since then, Judge Noel has been trying to decide whether a voting rights suit requires a three-judge federal panel. In the meantime, trustee Harwell and two private citizens have filed suit in state court to have the election thrown out on the grounds that Westheimer officials failed to comply with requirements of the Texas Open Meetings Law in calling the election and reporting the returns. If these suits don’t cripple WISD, perhaps those filed by the Coalition to Preserve Houston and HISD will. The