Nation IN BRIEF : TEXAS : U.S. Takes Control of Housing Project

In a stern visit to the East Texas town of Vidor, often the scene of Ku Klux Klan activity, Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Henry G. Cisneros announced that the federal government has seized control of the town’s public housing project and fired leaders of the local housing authority. Under court order to desegregate, the housing complex got its first black residents this spring, but by last month all had left town, saying they were frightened by townspeople’s hostility and harassment. In detailing changes to come at Vidor Village, Cisneros said that as many as 12 African-American families would move in simultaneously “to create a critical mass of support for each other.”