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[corporate web/1history.htm] Intergration
In Little Rock, Arkansas and The Deep South
or Life among the Lowly
Local customs, however hardened by time,
are not decreed in heaven. Habits and feelings they engender may be counteracted and
moderated.
And educational influences are exerted not
only by explicit teaching. They vigorously flow from the fruitful exercise of the
responsibility of those charged with political official power, and from the almost
unconsciously transforming actualities of living under law.
Select here: The
Southern National Anthem, Dixie
EISENHOWER WAS RELUCTANT
to act in the nation’s growing civil rights crisis, even to use federal soldiers to
enforce civil rights law. He thought the Supreme Court’s school integration decision
was premature. He wanted to uphold the court’s ruling, but he did not want to offend
his Southern friends; he wanted to enforce the law, if he had to, but he did not want to
use force to do so. His basic belief was that the right to attend an integrated school was
not nearly as important as the right of Southern blacks to vote. Confusion over where he
stood led many segregationists to convince themselves that Eisenhower, faced with a
showdown, would not act.
On Sept. 4, 1957, Eisenhower, weary from a bruising fight with
Congress over passage of a civil rights bill, flew to the naval base at Newport, R.I., for
vacation and golf.
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In the end, Eisenhower had to be pushed hard before
he would act. But, at the critical moment, he lived up to his oath of office.
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Orval Faubus, the governor of Arkansas, immediately presented
Eisenhower with the problem he most dreaded — outright defiance of a court order by a
governor. Faubus had called out the Arkansas National Guard and stationed troops around
Little Rock’s Central High School to prevent the entrance of black pupils. Faubus,
who knew of Eisenhower’s Southern sympathies, counted on the president to stay out of
the situation. And clearly Eisenhower wanted to stay out. He had told a news conference a
month earlier that he could not imagine circumstances that would induce him to use federal
troops to enforce a court order.
Brooks Hays, an Arkansas congressman, talked to Faubus and
informed Eisenhower that Faubus wanted a way out of the situation. Attorney General
Brownell told Ike not to talk to Faubus. But Ike said he’d talk. The governor flew
north to Newport. The president told Faubus to change the National Guard’s orders,
directing it to keep the peace while black students enrolled at Central High. Faubus
agreed, or seemed to agree. When he returned to Arkansas, he did nothing.
Brownell told Eisenhower he might now have to use federal
troops. The president said he was loathe to do this as it might only spread violence.
On Sept. 23, a mob gathered around Central High. Nine black
students were spirited into the school by a side door.
It was a nasty scene.
EISENHOWER FORCED TO ACT
Brownell told Eisenhower he had to act; the mayor had ordered
the black students removed from the school.
Army Chief of Staff Maxwell Taylor wanted to use the Arkansas
National Guard to enforce the law. Eisenhower agreed. He did not want to return to
Washington, feeling it might only magnify the crisis. The mayor of Little Rock sent
Eisenhowre a telegram saying that there was urgent need for federal troops.
Eisenhower realized his strategy had broken down. He had no
options, changed his mind and requested federal troops. The army called in the 101st
Airborne; 500 troops arrived at the school within six hours, another 500 by nightfall.
The president changed his mind about returning to Washington
and went on the air from the White House that night with an address saying he was not
sending the army into the South to integrate schools but to maintain the law. His
conciliatory approach had little effect, but the action convinced most white Southerners
they could not use force to prevent school integration. The crisis faded away.
In the end, Eisenhower had to be pushed hard before he would
act. But, at the critical moment, he lived up to his oath of office. He told a friend that
Little Rock had been “troublesome beyond imagination.” |
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