Books

Author cites what seem to be vestiges of racism

08:30 AM CST on Monday, November 7, 2005

By JEROME WEEKS / The Dallas Morning News

Whether Highland Park is still a sundown town is an open question. A sundown town, says James W. Loewen, author of Sundown Towns: A Hidden Dimension of American Racism, is a place that has deliberately excluded black homeowners until they make up less than 0.1 percent of residents. It wasn't until 2003 that a black household moved into Highland Park, but recent data show 0.4 percent of the population is black.

A number of those people may be renters or live-in help, but Highland Park, Dr. Loewen writes, may have "finally cracked."

There's no doubt, though, it has been a sundown town. Like many suburbs and parts of Dallas, too, it had deed restrictions prohibiting the resale of homes to nonwhites. And in his book, Dr. Loewen cites the affluent town repeatedly as an example of the segregation money can buy.

To discourage nonwhite visitors and residents, "Highland Park, Texas, has been a leader in criminalizing ordinary behavior," he writes. "It may have more 'No' signs per capita than any other city in the nation."

Lakeside Park, for instance, is partly in Dallas, partly in Highland Park. Only in the Highland Park portion is it illegal to eat lunch. "Too much litter, said city officials, but The Dallas Morning News," Dr. Loewen writes, "suspected that an aversion to the possibility of African-American picknickers underlay the ordinance."

A small example, but add to that the fact that Highland Park also prohibits swimming, wading, climbing trees, drinking alcohol, sleeping, "protractedly lounging" and sitting on railings. "Outsiders," Dr. Loewen notes, "cannot play tennis; reservations are for residents only, and it is illegal to play without one. [In contrast, Highland Park residents are free to use Dallas' facilities.] In 1982, the suburb made headlines for ticketing 13 joggers, ten of whom were nonresidents, for jogging on city streets."

Highland Park prohibits fishing without a city permit, although a Texas fishing license entitles the holder to fish free of charge in any body of public water in Texas. Highland Park police have also repeatedly arrested African-Americans and Mexican-Americans, not for drunken driving but for being "drunk in car." The latter, as The Dallas Morning News reported, is a "nonexistent crime."

In March, as required by state law, the Highland Park Police Department reported on its record of stops for traffic violations according to race. The Texas Criminal Justice Coalition and the Steward Research Group had just released a study that found black and Hispanic residents were more than three times likely to be searched there than whites.

The department's report found that in 2004, officers searched 5.3 percent of white drivers during traffic stops, 16.7 percent of black drivers and 27.6 percent of Hispanics.

When issuing the March report, Highland Park DPS Chief Darrell Fant said that officers do not stop drivers based on ethnicity. But a city ordinance requires an arrest if a driver is stopped without a license, and Hispanics in particular "have a more difficult time with identification."

Another reason for the arrest figures, Chief Fant said, is that his officers have more time to bring in people for such violations. Dallas doesn't have the manpower, he said, for what might be considered "low-priority traffic arrests."

In accepting the report in March, Highland Park Mayor Bill White told Chief Fant, "We are proud of you and the department. Let it be said that we would not endorse one iota of racial profiling.

"Keep on keeping on."

E-mail: jweeks@dallasnews.com