Yellow Jackets into Trojans

Yesterday, a coworker whom I'll call Grace, tells me a poignant story about her recollections growing up in Austin. If there are details undone, please blame me for the faulty report. As you'll know if you've lived here for any time, Interstate 35 (I-35) has been a symbolic dividing line between race and income since its completion in the early 1960s with blacks living east and whites living west (the simplest snapshot possible.) Interestingly, according to a January 1970 headline in the Austin American-Statesman (thank you, Austin History Center), "the Department of Health, Education and Welfare finds that Austin ISD is in violation of the 1964 Civil Rights Act due to eight predominately black schools." In 1971, Grace's graduating class is the last to attend the all-black L.C. Anderson High School in East Austin (the Yellow Jackets mascot) before it's torn down by a federal judge's desegregation order and rebuilt in West Austin (its current location since 1973 under the Trojans mascot.) Before her school was torn down, Grace recalls white students at McCallum refusing to bus and white families (presumably, those who can afford it) sending their children to private school rather than integrate. She says the black students sent to McCallum are taunted and beaten and fights are common. In the end, Grace says only one white student "a hippie guy" from McCallum ends up graduating with their class at L.C. Anderson. His parents, including his dad who is a local professor, allegedly disown him when they find out.