Did you know this ? It was left to an NAACP chapter in faraway Brownwood to sue and force final desegregation of the midway and eating establishments.

" Anybody black in Dallas whose family has been here more than 50 years knows all about "Nigger Day." Throughout the 1930s and '40s, that was the one day African-American families were allowed to attend the State Fair of Texas. And that's what it was called.
Even though it was the "state" fair, the fair was tightly dominated by the white Dallas hierarchy. Black leaders from all over Texas brought pressure on the Dallas white leadership to eliminate the ugly practice of Nigger Day.
In the early 1950s, Dallas leaders, always trying to cut a deal, renamed it "Negro Achievement Day." Didn't wash. Black people continued to bring pressure for open admissions to the fair.
In 1953 Dallas white leaders offered a new deal: open admissions during the full run of the fair, except that black people were barred from the midway and restaurants except on Negro Achievement Day.
Dallas black leaders thought this was an adequate deal. It was left to an NAACP chapter in faraway Brownwood to sue and force final desegregation of the midway and eating establishments.
But even when black people finally were admitted to the midway and restaurants, Dallas leaders, headed by banker R.L. Thornton, insisted that two particular rides on the midway--"Laff in the Dark" and "Dodge 'em Scooter"--could never be and would never be desegregated. Those two rides involved the possibility of actual bodily contact between white and black persons. The two rides stayed segregated at least through the 1960s, possibly into the 1970s.
So we think what? Black people are going to forget this stuff? If anything, the politics and culture of old Dallas, black and white, is a contorted tangle of all those strange "Laff in the Dark" and "Dodge 'em Scooter" memories. The white folks and black folks who have been around Dallas all that time have one thing in common: Neither side can make up its mind if desegregation was a good thing. It's all painful and unresolved. "

source: dallasobserver.com | originally published: September 9, 2004

http://www.dallasobserver.com/issues/2004-09-09/schutze.html
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Steve & Steve,

Thanks for your inquiry and the opportunity to offer some information from the records of the State Fair of Texas.  I know and admire Jim Schutze, but I don’t agree with all of the conclusions he has drawn from his research (some, yes, but not all), and I welcome the chance to correct a few facts.  First and foremost, despite what it may or may not have been called in the black or white communities of that time, the fair day set aside for African American participation was never called “Nigger Day” in State Fair publications, advertising or internal records.  It was called “Colored People’s Day” in 1900, when Booker T. Washington spoke, and “Negro Day” became an official calendar event starting in 1930.  After World War II, attendance on Negro Day climbed to 100,000, and there were two calendar dates positioned as “Negro Achievement Days” in 1947 (Duke Ellington was the featured entertainer on the first Monday).  That designation and the practice of scheduling special activities and outstanding entertainment (Louis Armstrong gave four concerts on one day in 1956) continued through 1959.  In 1960, the programs remained, but the day was simply called “Achievement Day.”  That was the last time the designation was ever used.

 It is commonly thought that African Americans were admitted to the fairgrounds only on these special days.  That is not exactly true, although it was in effect the case, since they were not admitted to the rides or restaurants except on the specified days.  In 1951, Joe C. Thompson, coordinator of Negro Day activities and president of City Ice Delivery (forerunner to today’s 7-Eleven stores) proposed lifting the ban that kept African Americans from riding the rides, but the board responded that the time was not right.  Two years later (1953), the State Fair and the Dallas Negro Chamber of Commerce announced a new policy that admitted African Americans to amusement rides on all 16 days of the Fair, as long as there were separate facilities available and no physical contact involved.  Civil Rights leader Juanita Craft and 22 members of the NAACP Youth Council protested in 1955 and passed out materials charging that Negroes were routinely barred from two rides and all restaurants, while being placed at the back of other rides.  The Fair’s response was to open the previously restricted rides to everyone.  In 1961, the last remaining barriers fell, and all State Fair activities and facilities were fully integrated.

 This is not intended as a defense of State Fair policies and practices in the 1950s.  Institutional racism was everywhere in this part of the country at that time, and the State Fair of Texas, under the leadership of R.L. Thornton (who was also Mayor of Dallas from 1953-61), was as guilty as the next.  But then, as now, the Fair was more visible than most institutions, and photos of the protests and picketing at the Fair are frequently published in connection with that era.

 If you would send us a mailing address, we would be happy to send you a copy of the book (no charge) with an inscription to the diners at your restaurant.

 Hope this is helpful,
NancyWiley

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What a ride: State Fair official retires

08:41 PM CST on Friday, February 4, 2005
By DAVID FLICK / The Dallas Morning News
She introduced former Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev to the corny dog, single-handedly halted a runaway golf cart and juggled the television appearances of two gubernatorial candidates and a pig act.

Now, after 33 years, Nancy Wiley is relinquishing her title as senior vice president of public relations and marketing for the State Fair of Texas, but she will stay on as a consultant – keeping one key duty.
"Institutional memory, that's my job description," said Ms. Wiley, 67, who retired Monday.
Although she served for more than three decades as the public voice of the fair, Ms. Wiley is perhaps best known as the author of The Great State Fair of Texas – An Illustrated History. The book has gone through three editions in the 20 years since it was first published and won the Texas Historical Commission's 1985 T.R. Fehrenbach Award.
The book is now available only through the State Fair. Ms. Wiley is unsure how many copies it has sold.
"I definitely did not get rich," she said.
But she had the pleasure of presenting copies to visiting celebrities such as Willie Nelson and Mr. Gorbachev.
"I'm sure it still sits on his coffee table," she said of Mr. Gorbachev.
State Fair Favorites
After 33 years, Nancy Wiley has a few State Fair favorites:
Favorite food – the patty melt at Katie's Cafe
Favorite ride – the Texas Star
Favorite entertainment – the Tiger Island show, 1996-97

She met him in 1998 when he was in Dallas to speak at Southern Methodist University. While here, he expressed a wish to see a more traditional part of Texas, specifically the State Fair.
Ms. Wiley led the former Soviet leader and his entourage around the fairgrounds in a 10-golf-cart motorcade, making stops at the auto show and the Creative Arts Building, where the results of the canning and handicraft competitions were on display. Finally, Mr. Gorbachev insisted on sampling a corny dog.
"He liked it," Ms. Wiley recalled. "He said it tasted just like a Russian sausage."
She also served as a guide for actress Carrie Fisher, who, among other stops, asked to meet the people in the midway freak shows. Though the visit came soon after Ms. Fisher's appearance in Star Wars, she walked the grounds unnoticed.
"She wasn't wearing her Princess Leia braids, so no one recognized her. Absolutely no one," Ms. Wiley said.
Someone who did attract crowds in the 1970s was Iola Johnson, who had just become the first black woman to anchor a Dallas newscast. As Ms. Wiley drove her through the fair, Ms. Johnson asked to see the Dancing Waters at the Esplanade reflecting pool.
As they walked toward the fountains, Ms. Wiley glanced back to see a horrifying sight – teenagers had turned on the ignition of her golf cart and released the brake. The driverless vehicle was now heading down the steps toward her.
Ms. Wiley rushed back, grabbed the steering wheel and stopped it, using only, as she recalled, "sheer brute force."
"It was a foolish thing to do, I guess. Somebody told me, 'Lady, you shouldn't have tried that,' " she said. "But I know what kind of trouble I would have gotten into if it had plunged into the water while a celebrity was coming to visit."
The '70s were a difficult time all the way around, she said. When she joined the fair staff in January 1972 as an assistant public relations director, she found a venerable institution that was struggling.
The Dallas Cowboys had moved from Fair Park to Irving the previous year. The Dallas Museum of Art was already thinking of leaving for downtown. The '60s had produced racial tensions between the fair and the largely African-American neighborhoods surrounding the park.
Meanwhile, the fair itself had lost popularity with younger audiences, who considered it old-fashioned.
"Those weren't the best of times," she recalled. "It was, like, 'The last person to leave Fair Park, please turn out the lights.' "
At the same time, stirrings of revival were afoot. Among Ms. Wiley's first assignments was to research the history of the Fair Park Music Hall, which was then undergoing renovation. The work sparked her interest in the wider history of the fair, which eventually led her to write The Great State Fair of Texas.
The turnaround accelerated in the 1980s, with the renovation of the fair's signature art deco structures, especially the Automotive Building. The group Friends of Fair Park also was born.
Meanwhile, fair officials sought to make the grounds safer and more attractive to modern audiences.
"We have to compete with theme parks now; we have to be everything they are and more," Ms. Wiley said.
At the same time, the more traditional aspects of the fair, such as the livestock barn, might hold an interest for city kids, she said.
"It's a way to see and touch animals they only know from the supermarket freezer bin," she said.
Sometimes, her hardest task over the years was to keep a sense of humor.
In 1994, after former President George Bush had cut the ribbon to that year's fair, Gov. Ann Richards, who was in a bruising re-election campaign, called to ask if there was some high-visibility event that she could participate in.
"I told her that Willard Scott [from the Today show] was going to be broadcasting from the fair, and we might be able to set up something with that," Ms. Wiley said. "She didn't want to get up that early in the morning, but she said she'd do it."
Campaign officials for her opponent, George W. Bush, heard about the governor's intentions and wondered if he, too, could appear with Mr. Scott. Ms. Wiley set it up.
"It was quite a scene," she recalled. "All the while they were doing the show, we had to keep Ann Richards over there and George Bush over there, so the two of them wouldn't actually meet.
"On top of that, they [Today] had a pig act on that day, and the pigs kept acting funny, and the farmer that brought them said it was because they didn't like to get up that early either.
"It was a great morning for TV.

source: http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/news/localnews/stories/020505dnmetfair.50bd9.html
 
-----Original Message-----
From: Steve Harris and Steve Puckett [mailto:steve_squared@verizon.net]
Sent: Tuesday, February 08, 2005 8:58 AM
To: Candis Wheat
Cc: Nancy Wiley
Subject:

I'm working with our local & regional reporters to cover the story of the State Fair of Texas during the early 50's and was wondering if you had any knowledge or information that could help us place this time/events in better context regarding Racial issues. I read in the Dallas Morning News recently of the book by Ms Wiley and am already looking forward to purchasing a copy for our restaurant (www.stevesmarketanddeli.com) in Brownwood, Texas. Any chance that I could purchase one directly with a signature and message for the diners at Steves' ? Any help would be greatly appreciated.

 Regards,
Steve Harris
Steves' Market and Deli
Brownwood Human Rights Committee