STAGES OF (de)SEGREGATION: PERFORMING STORIES OF PUBLIC SCHOOL DESEGREGATION IN LONGVIEW, TEXAS Elizabeth Michael Melton A dissertation submitted to the faculty at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the Department of Communication. Chapel Hill 2020 Approved by: Renée Alexander Craft Dana Thompson Dorsey Patricia Parker Tony Perucci Della Pollock © 2020 Elizabeth Michael Melton ALL RIGHTS RESERVED ii ABSTRACT Elizabeth Michael Melton: Stages of (de)Segregation (Under the direction of Renée Alexander Craft) This dissertation is a critical performance ethnography about public school desegregation in Longview, Texas. This dissertation to asks: How does understanding the process of public school desegregation in Longview, Texas from the perspective of students, parents, and administrators who experienced it help us better under persistent practices of institutional and everyday racism today? Combining theories of performance with critical race theory (CRT) and cultural geography, I argue that examining the stories told about desegregation in Longview provides a way to understand how race shapes life and identity in East Texas. Thinking spatially, temporally, and theatrically, I use “stages of (de)segregation” to frame my analysis of this history. Chapter 1 proposes a new methodological framework for researchers studying their hometowns. First, I outline the importance of spatiality and researcher positionality in conducting a hometown ethnography. Next, I delve into the specific contexts of conducting research in my hometown Longview, Texas, and outline the significant role race and East Texas identity play in my project. I finish the chapter with an analysis of interviews from Doris McQueen and Dorothy Walker. Moving into Chapter 2, I turn my attention to the history of institutionalized racism and look at three specific moments when children questioned their relationship to racial categorizations. To do this, I pivot between two stages: courtrooms and iii living rooms. I argue these sites, one public and the other private, direct our attention to the ways the large-scale, institutionalized articulations of race assert themselves into smaller everyday moments in children’s lives. Chapter 3 analyzes three moments of conflict that happened in Longview during desegregation. Taken together, these stories provide insight into the district’s response and the ways the community at large reacted to the bombing. Finally, Chapter 4 focuses on the more creative aspects of my performance methodology and how I create theatrical performances to better understand and approach my research question. I explain how my commitment to theatricality helps me literally and metaphorically unpack my research and translate it to the stage within an anti-racist framework. iv For Laney Elizabeth, Lily Catherine, Rilke Elise, and Michael Magdalene In memory of their Grandpa Mickey v ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I officially began this project in 2015, but my desire to do this work has been with me much longer. I am grateful to the faculty who taught in Texas A&M University’s Department of Performance Studies (2006- 2013) for setting me on this path and to the faculty at UNC’s Department of Communication (2013-2020) for guiding me along my way. I never would have pursued a Ph.D. if it were not for Kirsten Pullen, my professor and undergraduate honors thesis advisor at Texas A&M. She was my first academic mentor and she helped me recognize my potential as a writer and scholar. When I became a Master’s student, Judith Hamera encouraged and challenged me as a scholar and critical performance ethnographer. Her support and guidance were invaluable as I navigated the exhausting and precarious process of applying to doctoral programs. Dr. Hamera’s commitment to rigorous performance scholarship, critical pedagogy, and academic leadership continues to inspire my identity as a scholar, teacher, and performer. I chose Renée Alexander Craft as my doctoral advisor my second semester at UNC. From the moment I arrived, I recognized that her distinct combination of creativity and critical scholarship would push me forward with my work and career. I would not have made it to the end without our many conversations over tea, venting sessions, and mutual love of our beagles--- Shazam Craft and Rosie Mae Melton. This type of project requires institutional support and funding. I received funding from both the Carolina Center for Public Service and UNC’s Graduate Certificate in Participatory Research to conduct preliminary research and begin establishing relationships with collaborators vi in Longview. The support of these grants and the guidance of Dottie Holland helped me connect with many vital community partners, including Vickey Echols, Branden Johnson, the Unity and Diversity Committee, ArtsView Children’s Theater, and Megan and Mathew Simpson. These connections led to many interlocutor interviews and new friendships. I was blessed with a large community of support over the course of Unpacking Longview’s development. Performances rely on collaboration and I could not have delivered such engaging performances without my production teams, including Joseph Megel, Danial Dilliplane, Rob Hamilton, and Zavier Taylor in Chapel Hill, and Lindsey Siegler, J.D. Graves, Longview High School Theater Program Students in Longview. I owe a big thank you to Brad and Vickey Echols for hosting a read-through and feedback session in their home and to Alpine Presbyterian Church for allowing me to use their fellowship hall as a rehearsal space. This entire process would have been exponentially more difficult without my community of scholars and friends at UNC. I am thankful for the comradery and support offered by the other UNC COMM grads and to the inestimable members of the Hurston Collective, particularly Daniel Chavez, Daniel Dilliplane, Marie Garlock, Sonny Kelly, Meli Kimathi, Smita Misra, and Pavithra Vasudevan. Once again, thank you to Renée Alexander Craft, my advisor and friend who has been with me since the beginning, and my other committee members, Dana Thompson Dorsey, Patricia Parker, Tony Perucci, and Della Pollock, for their critical and thoughtful responses to this work. Finally, I could not have done this without the love and support I have received from my family. I don’t know how to articulate the importance of my family throughout this process. They are everything and have kept me grounded and focused. To those who have been with me vii throughout the journey, those who inspired me to start it, and those I lost along the way: Ann, Ryan, Rilke, and Maddie; Emily, Jess, Laney, and Lily; Jeanna and Jeri; Grandmother and Granddaddy Melton; Grandma and Granddaddy Jenkins; and Mama and Daddy. This work is for all of us. Thank you – love you forever. viii TABLE OF CONTENTS INTRODUCTION……………………………………………………………………………...…1 Situating Longview ……………………………………………………………………… 7 Telling and Theorizing Stories …………………………………………………………..12 Stages of (de)Segregation: Research Framework…………………………………….….17 Performance Praxis: Theory and Methods …………………………………………........21 Performance Historiography: Archives …………………………………..……. 22 Critical Performance Ethnography …………………………………………...…25 Community Collaboration as Activist Research …………………….…..25 Storied Pasts: Interview Collection and Analysis …………………….....28 Performed Ethnography …………………………………………….…...33 Chapter Overview………………………………………………………………… …….35 CHAPTER 1: “THIS IS EAST TEXAS”: PLACE, RACE, AND RESEARCHER POSITIONALITY IN A HOMETOWN ETHNOGRAPHY …………………………………...38 A Case for Hometown Ethnography: Place, Race, and Positionality……………….…...40 The Texas Myth and Gradual Desegregation Behind the Pine Curtain ……….……….. 53 “This is East Texas”: A Majoritarian and Counter Narrative of LISD Desegregation ……………………..…. 65 CHAPTER 2: NATIONAL STAGES OF (DE)SEGREGATION: FROM COURTROOMS TO LIVING ROOMS…………………………………………..…….77 “Who are white folk?” Understanding Race in America………………………….……. 82 Segregation and the Sexualized Logics of White Supremacy………………………...…92 ix Not So Black and White: The Meandering Path to Desegregation …………………102 CHAPTER 3: QUIET CHOICES, BUS BOMBINGS, AND FOOTBALL FIGHTS: CONFLICTS AND IDENTITY FORMATION IN LONGVIEW …………………...………. 118 Learned Behaviors and Quiet Choices…………………………………...…..……...…120 Remembering the Longview School Bus Bombing…………………………….….......137 Football, Fights, and Prayers…………………………………………………….……. 152 CHAPTER 4: UNPACKING LONGVIEW: STAGING ANTI-RACIST PERFORMANCE-AS-RESEAERCH ……………………....….. 164 Performing Many Voices: Dialogism, Response-ability, and Performing Race ………………………..……..….. 172 Writing and Performing the Self: Vulnerability as Anti-Racist Praxis ………..……… 182 Legacy & Inheritance……………………………………………….…….…… 189 Texas Identity: Critters and Contradictions ………………………….……….. 194 Grief and Loss……………………………………………………………....…. 202 Texas Melt’s Guide to Artifice and Wisdom…………………………………….……. 208 After the Blackout ……… …………………………………………………….……….230 CONCLUSION ……………………………………………………………………….………. 232 APPENDIX I: Interlocutor Information ……………………………………………….……... 238 APPENDIX II: Unpacking Longview - 2016 Workshop Script ……………………………… 243 APPENDIX III: Unpacking Longview - 2019 North Carolina Script ……………….……….. .264 APPENDIX IV: Public Facebook Exchange 2017 ………………………….……………........289 BIBLIOGRAPHY ……………………………………………………………………………. 293 x INTRODUCTION When I met Kedarious Colbert, Keke to his friends, he was working for the City of Longview as