Little Rock School Integration Anniversary

50 Years Ago Federal Troops Escorted Black Students Into White School

(AP)  Fifty years after federal troops escorted Terrence Roberts and eight fellow black students into an all-white high school, he says the struggles over race and segregation still are unresolved.

"This country has demonstrated over time that it is not prepared to operate as an integrated society," said Roberts, who is a faculty member at Antioch University's psychology program.

He and the other students known as the Little Rock Nine will help the city observe Central High School's 50th anniversary this week with a series of events culminating with a ceremony featuring former President Bill Clinton.

For three weeks in September 1957, Little Rock was the focus of a showdown over integration as Gov. Orval Faubus blocked nine black students from enrolling at a high school with about 2,000 white students. Although the U.S. Supreme Court had declared segregated classrooms unconstitutional in 1954 - and the Little Rock School Board had voted to integrate - Faubus said he feared violence if the races mixed in a public school.

The showdown soon became a test for then-President Dwight D. Eisenhower, who sent members of the Army's 101st Airborne Division in to control the angry crowds. It was the first time in 80 years that federal troops had been sent to a former state of the Confederacy.

Yet, half a century later, there are signs of progress and strife in Arkansas' largest school district, which is now 70 percent black.

A federal judge ruled this year that the 27,000-student district was unitary, or substantially integrated, and ordered the end of federal desegregation monitoring. The school now has a nearby museum for the Little Rock crisis, and statues of the nine brave students stand on the grounds of the state Capitol.

But race still divides the school board, which has a black majority.

In 1957, Roberts, Carlotta Walls LaNier, Melba Patillo Beals, Elizabeth Eckford, Ernest Green, Gloria Ray Karlmark, Jefferson Thomas, Minnijean Brown Trickey, and Thelma Mothershed Wair were determined to get a good education.

"I really didn't understand at 14 we were helping change the educational landscape here in America," LaNier recalls. "All we wanted to do is go to school."

When Faubus pulled Arkansas National Guard members from blocking nine students from entering the school, an inflamed crowd gathered to keep the black students out.

Relman Morin, an Associated Press reporter standing outside the school at the time, described the chaos as a "human explosion" when the nine students were slipped inside during a melee.

Eisenhower was shocked at the outbreak of violence.

"Cruel mob force had frustrated the execution of an order of a United States court, and the governor of the state was sitting by, refusing to lift a finger to support the local authorities," Eisenhower later wrote, according to David A. Nichols, author of "A Matter of Justice: Eisenhower and the Beginning of the Civil Rights Revolution."

Eisenhower signed a proclamation approving the use of federal troops to enforce U.S. District Judge Ronald Davies' desegregation order and the students entered Central High under armed escort Sept. 25, 1957.

"That was a turning point in history because it said that, when push comes to shove, two of the three branches of American government will respond on behalf of integration as part of the fundamental American heritage," said historian Taylor Branch, Pulitzer-Prize winning author of "Parting the Waters" and other books about the civil rights movement. "It said that segregation is not compatible with American ideals."

Green, the first black person to graduate from Central, said he had studied the history of other black trailblazers at the time but didn't think he would join their ranks.

"We saw ourselves as groundbreakers in breaking tradition," said Green, who served as an assistant Secretary of Housing and Urban Affairs under President Jimmy Carter. "But I don't see that any of us thought we would be part of the civil rights legacy."Despite the torment and legal battle, eight of the nine black students completed the school year. Trickey said she was expelled when school officials found her at fault in a run-in with girls she called "white trash."

The following school year, Faubus closed the schools in Little Rock. He was re-elected governor the next month.

During the "lost year" of the closed schools, some students studied their textbooks at home while others for a time took classes by television. Schools surrounding Pulaski County were jammed with transfer students, and Memphis, Tenn., announced that fall that it couldn't take any more transfers from Little Rock.

The schools reopened in 1959, partly because of an effort by white businessmen who realized that the crisis was hurting their community and the economy.

"Basically, what they were interested in was getting Little Rock off the front pages and salvaging her image. Again, they weren't interested in justice or racial change," said Elizabeth Jacoway, author of "Turn Away Thy Son," a history of Central's desegregation.

Trickey and the other nine said they're frustrated with the school system nationally, not just in Arkansas, that they see as still widely segregated.

"We're still living segregated lives based on culture and language," said Trickey, who now works as a gender and social justice advocate. "Here we are in 2007 and we're still playing the same game."

[steffinn]

I was appaled to see the principal of the high school crying over the achievement gap. She should be looking at the high schools across the country that are closing gaps and educating young people, or doing research on strategies to close the gap and providing support to the teachers who need help, intead of shedding crocodile

RA Glover retire educator

[voteronpaul3]

**** TAKE AMERICA BACK ****
**** STOP THE WAR ****

Ron Paul has it all.

He has NEVER voted:
* to raise taxes
* for an unbalanced budget
* to raise congressional pay
* for a federal restriction on gun ownership
* to increase the power of the executive branch

He HAS voted:
* against the Iraq war
* against the inappropriately named USA PATRIOT act
* against regulating the internet
* against the Military Commissions Act

He will eliminate the IRS, Wasteful Government Spending & Stop The Iraq War Immediately!

Most importantly, he voted NO on anything in Congress that is not allowed by the Constitution.

He is the only candidate not a member of the CFR!

Shouldn''t ALL members of Congress uphold the Constitution? Aren''t they SWORN to uphold it? You can bet Paul won''t call the Constitution "just a G**D***ed piece of paper" like George Bush is reported to have.

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[signof4]

Needless to say, Arkansas was run by DEMOCRATS at the time. I wonder why Hillary isn''t shoving her puss in front of the cameras down there?

I know why Ubama isn''t there......he''s not black enough. :)

[glossypan]

America suffers strife and disruption but does the Right Thing.
A proud time for our nation.

[michellem99-2009]

The Human Race
Ba Barbara Ann
They use the word race.
There is one race.
Yes sah that being human.
There are different skin colours.
Two genders.
All God''s children.
So as a Legally blind.person,
Skin colours mean nothing.
So bury the hate one learnt.
From adults passed down to kids.
One race and that being Human Beings
Brothers and sisters we all are.

Plaese give Barbara Ann the credit if yer use this verse. Thank you.

[Krazcarl]

McVIET why do you use a nazi salute to those that don''t agree with your ignorant philosophy all you do is try to stir things up to look superior everyone sees through you.

[mcvet]

This article is another attepmt to blow the flames of racisn even the media won''''t let it go it''''s over was over 50 yeats ago let it go we all have things in our past best left forgotten but dreging it up again serves no purpose.

Posted by crzmeat at 06:23 PM : Sep 23, 2007
+ report abuse

Are you NUTS!?! The actions of these Fascist in the South, the Religious Reich and their people in power was one of the biggest crimes against humanity in the history of the world. Imagine being in your home late at night, only to have the doors kicked in, dragged outside and hung by the neck from a tree until you are dead. Then imagine the police either completely ignoring the crime or if they arrested someone only to have them release by a jury? My God Man there are some things that can''t be hidden or forgotten...why would anyone want to forget such things? Sieg Heil Y''all.

[jacksteen1]

I beg to differ with crzmeat - that bringing the errors of the past up again serves to do little but "inflame flames of racism."

The Republishit Party has made a living out of the fanning of these flames - albeit couched in new language that alters or obfuscates their true meaning.

We will NOT stop reminding people of the inequities of the past.

They continue still under the edicts of the Republicrap Party and their adherents.

The Broad Broom comes soon to clean up Washington and the statehouses across the land. Soon the Republicunts will be out of favour and will be out for at least 16 long years, sucking boys in dirty airport bathrooms and cruising for easy *** in alleys...praising their god on Sundays and reveling in filth all the week long.

Write it on your calendars, backwater bumpkins.

"Yes Ma''am, Madame President Clinton!"

[likeitis5050]

But race still divides the school board, which has a black majority.


If the majority of the Board of Ed is now black, it''s not a case of racism from the historical standpoint. It''s politics. Now we''re equal. I don''t of any school district in the United States that isn''t mired in politics, which affects the quality of education for all the students in the district. Political games and power plays stall progress, not racism. But racism sells more papers and advertising.

[Krazcarl]

This article is another attepmt to blow the flames of racisn even the media won''t let it go it''s over was over 50 yeats ago let it go we all have things in our past best left forgotten but dreging it up again serves no purpose.