Dr. Emmett Conrad helped diversify Dallas schools.

Byline: Michael E. Young

Feb. 28--Despite a federal court order to integrate, Dallas schools looked much like the rest of Dallas in the 1960s, with distinct separations between most white and black students. The courts had ordered the Dallas Independent School District to fully integrate its junior high schools by 1965 and its high schools by 1967, but the district hadn't even come close. During the 1970-71 school year, seven DISD schools were all black, and 21 more had black enrollments of 98 to 99 percent.

At the same time, 61 Dallas schools didn't have a single black student. Black Dallas did little better in terms of representation through much of the '60s. But that would change in 1967. Dr. Emmett J. Conrad, who'd already broken racial barriers by becoming the first black surgeon to join the staff of a major hospital and later its chief of staff, was elected to the school board in the most difficult way possible -- in a citywide vote, and a runoff at that. At the urging of the League for Educational Advancement, Dr.…