Historical research done right — that is, honestly — is a lot like science itself. Conclusions are not predetermined, often unsettling assumptions rather than confirming them. And discovery arrives unexpectedly.
Simply ask author and historian Harold Rich, a “late bloomer” academic who has returned to book stores — and you, too, Amazon — with a third comprehensive account of Fort Worth history.
Fort Worth From World War II to 1960, published by the University of North Texas Press, examines everything from economic development — the “bomber plant” the most prominent initiative — to policing, where gangs and corruption played a leading role, and race relations, a history that is far from something to be proud of.
“Fort Worth in 1944 was a Southern segregated city, and by 1960 it still was, with very few changes or advances,” said Rich, who grew up in Fort Worth and graduated from Paschal High School. “Fort Worth was the last major city in Texas to hire Black police officers. Fort Worth schools remained segregated throughout all that time, even though the Brown decision came out in ’54. I graduated in 1966, and I tell people that the first time I ever sat in a classroom with a Black person was my first college class.”…