Closed
In its 1954 Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka ruling, the United States Supreme Court declared the segregation of schools based on race unconstitutional. (Many modern politically-minded folk would call this legislating from the bench.) But school systems across the South resisted this push toward desegregation, loudly repeating the cry that's plagued us for almost two centuries that the federal government had no right to meddle in the affairs of states and municipalities. This eventually came to a head in a number of locations. One of those spots was here in Arkansas, at Little Rock Central High School.
A court order had forced the Little Rock School District to admit nine African-American children to Little Rock Central High School at the start of the 1957-58 school year. But two days before school was to start, Arkansas Governor Orval Faubus (and if that isn't the perfect name for a Southern governor, there isn't one) went on television to say he wasn't going to let it happen. Order needed to be preserved, he said, and he would do this by calling up Arkansas national guard troops to keep the black kids from entering the building. Those nine kids went to the school on September 4, but the national guard turned them away, and they were swamped and spat upon by an angry mob. The mob kept these kids out of class for two weeks.
U.S. President Dwight Eisenhower responded by federalizing the national guard troops and ordering them removed. (Today's politicians would probably call this tyranny and sue.) The nine kids were brought back on September 20. Little Rock police escorted the kids into the school this time, but the mob outside quickly broke out into a riot (so there is a precedent for this sort of thing), and the police took the kids right out the back door.
Finally, on September 25, Eisenhower sent in troops from the U.S. Army 101st Airborne Division to escort the kids into the school. (I wonder if there's a unit patch for that.) The troops stayed at the school for the entire year, and Little Rock Central High School was finally desegregated. African-American kids were finally able to exercise their constitutional right to walk up these steps ... with military escort.
Closed
In its 1954 Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka ruling, the United States Supreme Court declared the segregation of schools based on race unconstitutional. (Many modern politically-minded folk would call this legislating from the bench.) But school systems across the South resisted this push toward desegregation, loudly repeating the cry that's plagued us for almost two centuries that the federal government had no right to meddle in the affairs of states and municipalities. This eventually came to a head in a number of locations. One of those spots was here in Arkansas, at Little Rock Central High School.
A court order had forced the Little Rock School District to admit nine African-American children to Little Rock Central High School at the start of the 1957-58 school year. But two days before school was to start, Arkansas Governor Orval Faubus (and if that isn't the perfect name for a Southern governor, there isn't one) went on television to say he wasn't going to let it happen. Order needed to be preserved, he said, and he would do this by calling up Arkansas national guard troops to keep the black kids from entering the building. Those nine kids went to the school on September 4, but the national guard turned them away, and they were swamped and spat upon by an angry mob. The mob kept these kids out of class for two weeks.
U.S. President Dwight Eisenhower responded by federalizing the national guard troops and ordering them removed. (Today's politicians would probably call this tyranny and sue.) The nine kids were brought back on September 20. Little Rock police escorted the kids into the school this time, but the mob outside quickly broke out into a riot (so there is a precedent for this sort of thing), and the police took the kids right out the back door.
Finally, on September 25, Eisenhower sent in troops from the U.S. Army 101st Airborne Division to escort the kids into the school. (I wonder if there's a unit patch for that.) The troops stayed at the school for the entire year, and Little Rock Central High School was finally desegregated. African-American kids were finally able to exercise their constitutional right to walk up these steps ... with military escort.