Little Rock school desegregation crisis
The Little Rock school desegregation crisis, which unfolded in 1957, marked a significant confrontation in the American civil rights movement following the Supreme Court's ruling in *Brown v. Board of Education* that declared racially segregated public schools illegal. Initially, the Little Rock school board planned a gradual integration process, but tensions escalated when nine African American students, known as the "Little Rock Nine," sought to enroll in the previously all-white Central High School. Arkansas Governor Orval Faubus opposed the integration efforts, using the National Guard to block the students' entry, which led to national media coverage of the violent protests by segregationists.
In response to the escalating crisis, President Dwight D. Eisenhower dispatched federal troops to ensure the students could safely attend school, underscoring the federal government's commitment to enforcing desegregation. The incidents at Little Rock highlighted the deep-seated resistance to integration and set a precedent for future civil rights struggles across the country. Although integration faced numerous challenges, including school closures and ongoing hostility, the events of Little Rock became a pivotal moment in the fight for civil rights, symbolizing both the obstacles and the resolve in pursuit of equality in education.
Little Rock school desegregation crisis
The Event Crisis in federal-state relations arising from the refusal of Arkansas state officials to comply with a court order to allow African American students to enroll in Little Rock’s Central High School
Date 1957-1959
Place Little Rock, Arkansas
The widely publicized events in Little Rock made school desegregation a nationally recognized issue and gave momentum to the early Civil Rights movement.
On May 17, 1954, in the case of Brown v. Board of Education, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that racially segregated public schools were illegal. The court issued a second ruling on the case one year later, ordering local school boards to desegregate “with all deliberate speed.” One of the first and most widely publicized tests of the new federal position on school segregation came in Little Rock, Arkansas.
At first, it appeared as if Little Rock schools would quietly follow the orders of the Supreme Court. On May 22, 1954, the Little Rock school board announced that it would comply with the Supreme Court order as soon as the Court established a method and a schedule for desegregation. In May 1955, the school board voted to adopt a policy of gradual desegregation to start in 1957. Under the plan devised by School Superintendent Virgil Blossom, the city would first integrate the city’s Central High School and then gradually integrate lower grades.
The Crisis Erupts
The crisis broke out in 1957, the year that the school board had hoped to manage the quiet enrollment of a few African American pupils to white schools. Seventeen students were selected to be the first to break down the racial lines, but only nine of them decided to pursue enrollment. Shortly before the beginning of the school year, on August 27, the Little Rock’s Mother’s League sought an injunction to halt integration. The injunction was granted by Pulaski County chancellor Murray Reed, but it was rejected three days later by federal district judge Ronald Davies.
The enrollment of the African American students might have proceeded in a relatively peaceful manner if the Arkansas governor Orval Faubus had not used the event for political advantage. Faubus was searching for political support to win a third term in office, and he decided to appeal to white constituents who were eager to preserve segregation. Governor Faubus declared that he would not be able to maintain order if Central High School were integrated, and on September 2, he ordered the state’s National Guard to surround the school. His stand drew public attention to the situation and attracted white segregationist mobs to the streets. The next day, Judge Davies ordered that the integration of Central High should continue.
The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), under the local leadership of Daisy Bates, organized the nine African American students to arrive in a group. They were met by National Guardsmen who turned them away with bayonets. One of the students arrived after the others and was confronted by screaming segregationists. Television, which occupied a central place in most American homes by 1957, broadcast the scenes from Little Rock around the nation. On September 20, Judge Davies ruled that Governor Faubus had used the National Guard to prevent integration and forbade the guard’s employment in this way. Faubus then replaced the guard with local police. The nine black students entered Central High School through a side door on September 23. As they made their way into the school, an unruly mob of more than one thousand people massed on the streets outside.
Federal Intervention
President Dwight D. Eisenhower met with Governor Faubus on September 14. The president believed that the governor had agreed to allow school integration to continue. It soon became evident that Governor Faubus had no such intention.
Alarmed by the developments in his city, on September 24, Little Rock mayor Woodrow Mann asked President Eisenhower for federal troops to maintain order. Eisenhower responded by sending one thousand troops of the 101st Airborne Division and placing the Arkansas National Guard under federal control. The troops then escorted the nine students to the school each day. Some Americans were shocked to see that military protection was needed to protect the basic rights of citizens. Others were disturbed at what they believed was a federal military occupation of a state, reviving historical memories of the military occupation of the South during the era of Reconstruction in the years following the Civil War.
Years of Struggle
The struggle continued even after the mobs in front of Central High returned to their homes and jobs. On February 8, 1958, after several angry confrontations with white students, one of the nine, Minnijean Brown, was suspended for the rest of the year. Shortly after, the school board asked the federal court for a delay of the integration order until the concept of “all deliberate speed” was defined. The delay was granted in June and reversed in August. In the meantime, the first African American student graduated from Central High in May.
Upon the opening of the 1958-1959 school year, Governor Faubus ordered Little Rock public schools closed, and white students enrolled in private schools and in other districts. On September 27, 1958, Little Rock residents voted on school integration and overwhelmingly rejected it. However, on June 18, 1959, a federal court declared that Little Rock’s public school closing was unconstitutional. Little Rock schools opened one month early for the 1959-1960 school year and enrolled both African American and white students.
Impact
The Little Rock crisis was the first major test of the federal government’s determination to enforce the Supreme Court’s Brown decision. President Eisenhower’s willingness to use troops for school desegregation was controversial, but it marked the beginning of the U.S. government’s commitment to desegregated schools. Little Rock was also the beginning of a series of struggles over school desegregation that continued for several decades across the nation. The event proved to be one of the defining events during the early Civil Rights movement.
Bibliography
Counts, Ira Wilmer. A Life Is More than a Moment: The Desegregation of Little Rock’s Central High. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1999. Provides essays and photographs concerning the events at Central High.
Huckaby, Elizabeth. Crisis at Central High: Little Rock, 1957-1958. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1980. The crisis as recounted by one of the original African American students.
Kirk, John A. Redefining the Color Line: Black Activism in Little Rock, Arkansas, 1940-1970. Gainesville: University Press of Florida, 2002. Draws on the oral histories of important grassroots civil rights activists who shaped the critical events in Little Rock.