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| Photo from the Washington Post |
I haven’t ever been to Arkansas, but now I have a good excuse to visit - The Clinton Presidential Center in Little Rock.
The center includes the Clinton Presidential Library, The University of Arkansas Clinton School of Public Service and an Arkansas office of the Clinton Foundation. I read about the library in Sarah Eddington’s article, “Clinton Helps Dedicate Little Rock Nine Exhibit”, and headed over to check it out. I found lots of cool goodies at the library site but no mention of the Little Rock Nine exhibit. I decided to do some digging on my own. A few weeks ago I wrote about the Greenville 8’s trouble at the library but this story takes trouble to another level. I had a foggy understanding of the 1957 incident at Little Rock High, I knew it had something to do with school segregation, The National Guard and The Civil Rights Movement - right? When I went back and read the facts, the abhorrent truth unfolded.
There were a few key players: nine African American high school students were the main characters, Governor Orval Faubus played the villain (he took the role very seriously) and President Eisenhower was the hero, although his actions didn’t do much to craft a happy ending for the students. After the Supreme Court decided that school segregation was unconstitutional, in 1954, the states began plans for gradual integration in schools. The NAACP helped them evolve by enrolling black students in white schools throughout the southern states.
On the morning of September 4, 1957, nine enrolled African American students arrived at school and were physically blocked from entering the building by segregation groups on the stairs. This was the moment Governor Faubus was waiting for...he sent in the Arkansas National Guard to PREVENT the students from going to school. Let me type that again...a line of National Guardsmen (on the order of the Governor) blocked the students so they could not attend school. It sure makes you wonder what he was thinking.
The city went crazy - some in favor and some against - and President Eisenhower met with Governor Faubus to remind him that he was meddling in a decision made by the Supreme Court. That fact didn’t seem to bother him a bit. Twenty-one days later the students were finally allowed to enter the school only because President Eisenhower sent in the 101st Airborne Division of the ARMY and federalized the National Guard Troops, basically shutting down old Orval’s ability to make decisions. I sure would have liked to hear the conversations leading up to that rather drastic decision...
The students spent a mostly unpleasant year at Little Rock High, enduring verbal and physical abuse. Clearly just getting the students in the door of the school wasn’t enough, kind of like opening the door to the polar bear’s exhibit and throwing in some salmon. I can’t help wonder where the superintendent, principals and teachers were during this year and whose side they were on?
Little Rock High is still an operating school but now it is also a National Historic Site and home to a civil rights museum. In 1999 Bill Clinton awarded the Little Rock Nine with Congressional Medals of Honor, the country’s highest honor and one of those medals is now displayed at Clinton’s Library in Little Rock. These nine teenagers suffered to remind our country of the promises it made to treat all citizens equally and I’m glad the library is around to remind me of their sacrifice.
The center includes the Clinton Presidential Library, The University of Arkansas Clinton School of Public Service and an Arkansas office of the Clinton Foundation. I read about the library in Sarah Eddington’s article, “Clinton Helps Dedicate Little Rock Nine Exhibit”, and headed over to check it out. I found lots of cool goodies at the library site but no mention of the Little Rock Nine exhibit. I decided to do some digging on my own. A few weeks ago I wrote about the Greenville 8’s trouble at the library but this story takes trouble to another level. I had a foggy understanding of the 1957 incident at Little Rock High, I knew it had something to do with school segregation, The National Guard and The Civil Rights Movement - right? When I went back and read the facts, the abhorrent truth unfolded.
There were a few key players: nine African American high school students were the main characters, Governor Orval Faubus played the villain (he took the role very seriously) and President Eisenhower was the hero, although his actions didn’t do much to craft a happy ending for the students. After the Supreme Court decided that school segregation was unconstitutional, in 1954, the states began plans for gradual integration in schools. The NAACP helped them evolve by enrolling black students in white schools throughout the southern states.
On the morning of September 4, 1957, nine enrolled African American students arrived at school and were physically blocked from entering the building by segregation groups on the stairs. This was the moment Governor Faubus was waiting for...he sent in the Arkansas National Guard to PREVENT the students from going to school. Let me type that again...a line of National Guardsmen (on the order of the Governor) blocked the students so they could not attend school. It sure makes you wonder what he was thinking.
The city went crazy - some in favor and some against - and President Eisenhower met with Governor Faubus to remind him that he was meddling in a decision made by the Supreme Court. That fact didn’t seem to bother him a bit. Twenty-one days later the students were finally allowed to enter the school only because President Eisenhower sent in the 101st Airborne Division of the ARMY and federalized the National Guard Troops, basically shutting down old Orval’s ability to make decisions. I sure would have liked to hear the conversations leading up to that rather drastic decision...
The students spent a mostly unpleasant year at Little Rock High, enduring verbal and physical abuse. Clearly just getting the students in the door of the school wasn’t enough, kind of like opening the door to the polar bear’s exhibit and throwing in some salmon. I can’t help wonder where the superintendent, principals and teachers were during this year and whose side they were on?
Little Rock High is still an operating school but now it is also a National Historic Site and home to a civil rights museum. In 1999 Bill Clinton awarded the Little Rock Nine with Congressional Medals of Honor, the country’s highest honor and one of those medals is now displayed at Clinton’s Library in Little Rock. These nine teenagers suffered to remind our country of the promises it made to treat all citizens equally and I’m glad the library is around to remind me of their sacrifice.
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