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The Little Rock School Integration Crisis

When state and local authorities fail to uphold the Federal Court orders for integration at Central High School, President Dwight Eisenhower sent in federal troops to enforce those orders.

“With All Deliberate Speed”

On May 14, 1954, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka that segregated schools were “inherently unequal”. The next year in Brown II, the high court found that segregation in public schools must end “with all deliberate speed”. In response to these rulings, the Little Rock school board worked for three years to formulate a plan to desegregate its public schools. Early in 1957, the board unanimously voted in favor of a plan to integrate the Little Rock schools beginning with the high school. The plan called for the admission of a small number of African-American students to the all-white Central High School for the 1957-58 school year. Seventeen students, all volunteers, were selected based upon their grades. However, as the start of the school year drew near, the number of students had dropped to nine.

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Defiance

On September 2, the day before school was to start in Little Rock, Arkansas Governor Orval Faubus ordered the state’s National Guard to surround Central High School to prevent entry of the African-American students. The group, since known as the Little Rock Nine, did not attend the first day, but on September 4, the National Guardsmen barred their entry to Central High School. During these early days of September, President Eisenhower and Governor Faubus exchanged telegrams attempting to resolve the situation and the President frequently consulted with Attorney General Herbert Brownell. On September 9, Federal Judge Ronald N. Davies set a court date for Governor Faubus to appear on September 20. In an effort to end the situation, President Eisenhower agreed to meet with Governor Faubus on September 14 in Newport, Rhode Island, where he and Mrs. Eisenhower were vacationing.

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Newport, Rhode Island: September 14, 1957

Despite Attorney General Brownell’s opposition, President Eisenhower met with Governor Faubus at a meeting that was arranged by Arkansas Congressman Brooks Hays. For the first 20 minutes, the President and Governor Faubus talked alone in Eisenhower’s tiny office at the Naval Station at Newport. Adjourning to a larger outer office, the two men were joined by Assistant to the President Sherman Adams, Congressman Hays, and Attorney General Brownell. At this time, Governor Faubus indicated to all present that he would change the orders of the National Guard. President Eisenhower and Governor Faubus issued statements in which both expressed satisfaction that progress had been made toward implementation of the U.S. District Court orders. Yet in spite of this, the orders of the National Guard remained unchanged until the Governor appeared in court on September 20.

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The Commander-In-Chief Takes Charge

On September 20, Federal Judge Davies ordered Governor Faubus to cease barring integration; Faubus announced the withdrawal of the National Guard. September 23 was marked by mob riots in Little Rock when the crowd learned the nine students were inside the high school. Little Rock Mayor Woodrow Wilson Mann asked President Eisenhower to intervene and Eisenhower issued a proclamation providing the legal justification for military intervention. On September 24, mob violence continued. Eisenhower ordered the dispatch of troops to uphold the law and addressed the nation. Protected by 1,000 members of the 101st Airborne Division of the U.S. Army and the now federalized National Guard, the nine students attended their first full day of classes. Critics in the South decried the use of troops. By November 15, the situation had calmed. All federal troops were withdrawn; the National Guard took full control of the Central High School area.

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No Turning Back

Despite challenges and defiance to the authority of the Supreme Court and federal district court in ordering an end to segregation, the court rulings were upheld in Little Rock by President Eisenhower’s decision to send federal troops. As a result, Central High School was integrated. On June 3, 1958, Ernest Green became the first African-American to graduate from Little Rock’s Central High School. The impact of the events in Little Rock was profound: it showed that African-American citizens could expect their Constitutional rights to be upheld in the courts and it exposed the extent to which opponents would defy the law to deny those rights.

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