Forced Integration: Little Rock Central High School in 1957

Although the Brown v. Board of Education decision mandated that blacks be integrated, it did not suggest a specific time frame for this to occur, preferring instead to leave the decision in the hands of federal distric courts; the only stipulation was that integration occur with "all deliberate speed" (Englebert 24). Southern officals essentially concluded this to mean "never". Six southern state legislatures declared the Brown decision invalid, and most southern representatives signed the Southern Manifesto, a document urging whites to resist integration by any legal method. During this period, Klu Klux Klan participation rose dramatically, as did the number of lynchings and general violence against blacks.

The Little Rock school superintendent, Virgil T. Blossom, presented a plan for integration that was eventually accepted, albeit in a slightly weakened form. The accepted plan called for the gradual integration of small numbers of black students into white schools. Implementaion of this plan began in September, 1957.

Integration was scheduled for September 2, but the governor of Arkansas, Orville Faubus, declared that "blood will run in the streets if Negro pupils should attempt to enter Central High School," orders 250 Arkansas National Guard members to surround the school, ostensibly to prevent violence (Wexler 89). Nevertheless, their true objective of preventing integration was made apparent when one of the students scheduled to integrate arrived without her planned police escort. (The remaining students had been in communication with civil rights workers coordinating the event, but this student was unable to be reached in time.) Despite the fact that the expected mob had not materialized, the guardsmen turned her away, but permitted white students to enter the school. President Eisenhower then met with Faubus, and Faubus willingly agreed to remove the National Guard troops. The troops were withdrawn on September 22.

Unfortunately, this had a side effect unforseen by any except Faubus: white segregationalists from all over the South converged on the school. Although the nine black students had managed to successfully enter the school through a side door, the mayor of Little Rock had them evacuated by police when the crowd discovered their presence. The crowd, now close to rioting, began to encourage white students in the shool to leave. The students' mass exodus virtually destroyed any remaining semblance of order. The black students told reporters that they would not retry to enter the school until President Eisenhower guaranteed their safety.

Eisenhower did so. After denouncing what had occurred, he dispatched 1,000 paratroopers from the 101st Airborne Division and took control of 10,000 Arkansas National Guard members to ensure that integration proceeded uneventfully. (Yes, these are the same troops that two days earlier had been used to prevent integration.) This time integration succeeded. The troops escorted the nine black students to school for two months. The paratroopers were withdrawn in November, but National Guard troops under federal command continued to patrol the high school for the rest of the year.

A local Judge attempted to delay integration a final time in 1958, but an appeal to an irate Supreme Court quickly put down this attempt. Governor Faubus responded by closing public schools in Little Rock. He then created the all-white Little Rock Private School Corporation and leased the former public school buildings to it. Blacks were forced to attend segregated schools on the outskirts of the city. A federal court ruled Faubus' plan unconstitutional.