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KF5JRV > TODAY 26.09.18 11:51l 113 Lines 6377 Bytes #999 (0) @ WW
BID : 22001_KF5JRV
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Subj: Today in History - Sept 25
Path: IW8PGT<CX2SA<ZL2BAU<W9ABA<KE0GB<KF5JRV
Sent: 180925/1115Z 22001@KF5JRV.#NWAR.AR.USA.NA BPQ6.0.16
Under escort from the U.S. Army’s 101st Airborne Division, nine black
students enter all-white Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas.
Three weeks earlier, Arkansas Governor Orval Faubus had surrounded the
school with National Guard troops to prevent its federal court-ordered
racial integration. After a tense standoff, President Dwight D.
Eisenhower federalized the Arkansas National Guard and sent 1,000 army
paratroopers to Little Rock to enforce the court order.
On May 17, 1954, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled unanimously in Brown v.
Board of Education of Topeka that racial segregation in educational
facilities was unconstitutional. Five days later, the Little Rock School
Board issued a statement saying it would comply with the decision when
the Supreme Court outlined the method and time frame in which
desegregation should be implemented.
Arkansas was at the time among the more progressive Southern states in
regard to racial issues. The University of Arkansas School of Law was
integrated in 1949, and the Little Rock Public Library in 1951. Even
before the Supreme Court ordered integration to proceed “with all
deliberate speed,ö the Little Rock School Board in 1955 unanimously
adopted a plan of integration to begin in 1957 at the high school level.
The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP)
filed suit, arguing the plan was too gradual, but a federal judge
dismissed the suit, saying that the school board was acting in “utmost
good faith.ö Meanwhile, Little Rock’s public buses were desegregated. By
1957, seven out of Arkansas’ eight state universities were integrated.
In the spring of 1957, there were 517 black students who lived in the
Central High School district. Eighty expressed an interest in attending
Central in the fall, and they were interviewed by the Little Rock School
Board, which narrowed down the number of candidates to 17. Eight of
those students later decided to remain at all-black Horace Mann High
School, leaving the “Little Rock Nineö to forge their way into Little
Rock’s premier high school.
In August 1957, the newly formed Mother’s League of Central High School
won a temporary injunction from the county chancellor to block
integration of the school, charging that it “could lead to violence.ö
Federal District Judge Ronald Davies nullified the injunction on August
30. On September 2, Governor Orval Faubus—a staunch
segregationist—called out the Arkansas National Guard to surround
Central High School and prevent integration, ostensibly to prevent the
bloodshed he claimed desegregation would cause. The next day, Judge
Davies ordered integrated classes to begin on September 4.
That morning, 100 armed National Guard troops encircled Central High
School. A mob of 400 white civilians gathered and turned ugly when the
black students began to arrive, shouting racial epithets and threatening
the teenagers with violence. The National Guard troops refused to let
the black students pass and used their clubs to control the crowd. One
of the nine, 15-year-old Elizabeth Eckford, was surrounded by the mob,
which threatened to lynch her. She was finally led to safety by a
sympathetic white woman.
Little Rock Mayor Woodrow Mann condemned Faubus’ decision to call out
the National Guard, but the governor defended his action, reiterating
that he did so to prevent violence. The governor also stated that
integration would occur in Little Rock when and if a majority of people
chose to support it. Faubus’ defiance of Judge Davies’ court order was
the first major test of Brown v. Board of Education and the biggest
challenge of the federal government’s authority over the states since
the Reconstruction Era.
The standoff continued, and on September 20 Judge Davies ruled that
Faubus had used the troops to prevent integration, not to preserve law
and order as he claimed. Faubus had no choice but to withdraw the
National Guard troops. Authority over the explosive situation was put in
the hands of the Little Rock Police Department.
On September 23, as a mob of 1,000 whites milled around outside Central
High School, the nine black students managed to gain access to a side
door. However, the mob became unruly when it learned the black students
were inside, and the police evacuated them out of fear for their safety.
That evening, President Eisenhower issued a special proclamation calling
for opponents of the federal court order to “cease and desist.ö On
September 24, Little Rock’s mayor sent a telegram to the president
asking him to send troops to maintain order and complete the integration
process. Eisenhower immediately federalized the Arkansas National Guard
and approved the deployment of U.S. troops to Little Rock. That evening,
from the White House, the president delivered a nationally televised
address in which he explained that he had taken the action to defend the
rule of law and prevent “mob ruleö and “anarchy.ö On September 25, the
Little Rock Nine entered the school under heavily armed guard.
Troops remained at Central High School throughout the school year, but
still the black students were subjected to verbal and physical assaults
from a faction of white students. Melba Patillo, one of the nine, had
acid thrown in her eyes, and Elizabeth Eckford was pushed down a flight
of stairs. The three male students in the group were subjected to more
conventional beatings. Minnijean Brown was suspended after dumping a
bowl of chili over the head of a taunting white student. She was later
suspended for the rest of the year after continuing to fight back. The
other eight students consistently turned the other cheek. On May 27,
1958, Ernest Green, the only senior in the group, became the first black
to graduate from Central High School.
Governor Faubus continued to fight the school board’s integration plan,
and in September 1958 he ordered Little Rock’s three high schools closed
rather than permit integration. Many Little Rock students lost a year of
education as the legal fight over desegregation continued. In 1959, a
federal court struck down Faubus’ school-closing law, and in August 1959
Little Rock’s white high schools opened a month early with black
students in attendance. All grades in Little Rock public schools were
finally integrated in 1972.
73 de Scott KF5JRV
Pmail: KF5JRV@KF5JRV.#NWAR.AR.USA.NA
email: KF5JRV@ICLOUD.COM
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