Kehinde Hopkins

Rev. Floyd Moody speaks to a classroom audience of more than 30 which included students as well as faculty and staff who took advantage of the unique opportunity.

Rev. Floyd Moody spent his mornings as a child picking cotton. His family were sharecroppers. After hours of backbreaking work, he’d head to his all-Black Fort Worth elementary school. Segregation was alive and well in the 1940s Jim Crow South; Moody, now 87, is a living, breathing relic of America’s dark and not-so-distant past in more ways than one.  

In the wake of Brown v. Board of Education, the landmark Supreme Court decision that ruled the segregation of American public schools as unconstitutional, Moody and two other Black students attempted to enroll at Mansfield High School in 1955. Their attempt led to Jackson v. Rawdon, a class-action lawsuit that became the first test case of Brown v. Board of Education. After the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas (Fort Worth Division) ruled in favor of the students, Mansfield High School was ordered to desegregate and allow Moody and his classmates to enroll.  

The Black students were later met with a mob of over 300 white Mansfield residents who hung three black effigies in front of Mansfield High School. Amid threats and intimidation, Moody and his classmates enrolled instead at I.M. Terrell in Fort Worth ISD. Mansfield ISD wouldn’t desegregate until 1965, ten years later.  

Moody is the last remaining survivor of the three Black students.

After retiring as a pastor in 2019, Moody has taken it upon himself to tell his story and advocate for equal access to education. On Wednesday, March 11, he visited Texas Wesleyan University to speak to students in the history course: “Civil Rights: from the Bill of Rights to Black Lives Matter”. The course is taught by Christopher Ohan, associate professor of history and a former Mansfield resident who has worked as a historian documenting desegregation  efforts in Mansfield ISD.  

The class offers a comprehensive history in civil rights struggles in American society, past and present. Moody’s lived experience connected the dots for many students.  

“I always love hearing people who are living-history talk,” said first-year history major Hannah Mabe. Mabe grew up in Mansfield, and her family has a history in Mansfield ISD spanning several generations. “It was really interesting to hear stuff we read about all the time but from the actual person’s experience.” 

Forgiveness was a primary theme of Moody’s discussion. While narrating the racism, discrimination and intimidation he experienced, he emphasized the peace he now feels, even with those who wronged him.  

“He brought up a lot about forgiveness. It seems like reconciliation is the theme of how he is living his life,” coordinator for the Dean of the School of Arts & Sciences Tamika Johnson, who visited the class to attend the talk, said. “That’s a perspective that he has given me.” 

Moody later emphasized to students the importance of persistence when faced with struggle—affirming that trials can play a pivotal role in shaping, strengthening and informing them as individuals.

The talk ended with Ohan asking Moody for his perspectives on the current state of civil rights in present-day America. Moody answered with an indictment of the Trump administration and made a final point on how far American society has yet to go.  

“The voting rights that people died for are now on the verge of being reversed,” Moody said. 

Moody concluded by asserting that togetherness and collective action are the key to impactful change.  

“We are all better together than we are divided,” Moody said.