This six foot tall cyclone
fence with six rows
of barbed wire across the top of it
runs along the west side of Guilford
Road and Fort Worth West Side,
it separates the backyards
of these apartments from the
residential area known as Lake Como
in the eyes of its detractors.
It's more than a fence.
They call it the Ridgely Wall.
And they say it's a racial symbol
separating whites on that side
of the fence from blacks on this
side.
They say it imposes unreasonable
difficulties on those who live in
Como.
It's about 10 blocks long and
they must walk around either the
north or the south end of it to get
to Ridgley shopping or to the West
Side Branch Library just a few
blocks to the west this morning.
Some of those detractors appeared
before the Fort Worth City Council.
Dr. Ech Prud'homme was the first
to speak. He said he came as an
individual concerned with the
problem. Second to speak was Dr.
Ralph Estos, president of the Fort
Worth Civil Liberties Union.
Surely such a thing is this phantom
couldn't exist in my own city, not
in my own backyard.
Yet there it was.
And the more I looked around, the
worse it got.
To permit the residents of Cornwall
fair access to the city branch
library
to allow the residents to the west
of Komal barrier access
to the Comal schools
to provide for a less dangerous
traffic flow to Arlington Heights
High School,
to permit the Fort Worth school
board to redraw
its school district lines on a
nonracial basis and thus
avoid the probable loss of federal
funds.
And to literally free the enclave
that is, come on,
we urged the city to connect
a sufficient number of streets
such as Melbourne lock and level
to allow for east west access
to and from the Cornwall area.
Those who want this fence removed
or at least holes made in it so that
there can be a free east west flow
through this neighborhood, say it
might also keep the Fort Worth
school district from losing some
federal funds.
They say that the lines for school
districts in this area could be
redrawn, not on racial
bounds.
The city council has promised a
report from the city staff within
the next week or two on what can be
done about the problems posed by
what's known as the Ridgley wall.
Bruce Neal of the AP News,
Fort Worth.