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N0KFQ > TODAY 25.09.12 23:36l 127 Lines 6433 Bytes #999 (0) @ WW
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Subj: Today in History - Sep 25
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Sent: 120925/2120Z 28842@KB0WSA.MO.USA.NA BPQK1.4.53
Sep 25, 1957:
Central High School integrated
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," 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." 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
Nine" 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." 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." 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 rule"
and "anarchy." 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, K.O. n0kfq
N0KFQ @ KB0WSA.MO.USA.NA
E-mail: n0kfq@winlink.org
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