A participant-observer approach is utilized in a case study of Dallas, Texas, homeowners who organized to challenge city acquisition of their property for the expansion of the Fair Park State fairgrounds. From this study, a model of protest and political bias in urban politics is conceptualized. It is hypothesized that some individuals and groups are unable to place their demands, regardless of the extent of their organization and mobilization, on the governmental agenda. This inability to gain access to the decision-making arena is due to the existence of persistent and cumulative political biases. The biases are delineated as systemic, modes of operation, and ideological. Protest activity is a response by powerless groups to encountering these political biases.

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Dallas is a unique city whose history has been overshadowed by its elite. The War on Poverty in Dallas, Texas, has been largely overlooked in the historical collective. This thesis examines the War on Poverty, more specifically, Community Action Programs (Dallas County Community Action Committee) and its origin and decline. It also exams race within the federal program and the push for federal funding among the African American and Mexican American communities. The thesis concludes with findings of the politicization of the Mexican American community and the struggle with African Americans for political equality.