The Integration of Central High School The desegregation of public facilities began with the decision of Brown vs Board of Education in 1954, where the Supreme Court of the United States deemed segregation unlawful and unconstitutional. The country was told that desegregation was to take place “with all deliberate speed”. This angered the white community. Violent retaliation was the means used to prevent the integration of blacks into various public facilities. In fact, the Autherine Lucy case demonstrated to the entire country that violent mobs could halt integration demanded by a federal court order. However, three years later, the Little Rock Crisis would affirm that if provoked by mobs, the executive branch of the US government would impose by force a federal court order. Shortly after the Brown decision, the Little Rock school board decided to voluntarily work out a plan for desegregation.
The board decided to start at the top with one of the newest and best schools in the country, Central High School. In the beginning, somewhere around 400 black students were supposed to be integrated into the school because they lived in the Central school district. When the time grew nearer, the board faltered and began cutting the number down. Soon there were certain requirements needed to attend the school. Black students were required to register, which only about 75 did so. Somehow the board was able to eliminate any plaintiffs from the NAACP so the number was greatly reduced to 25 and then 9. Those last students became known as the “Little Rock Nine”.
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The governor of Arkansas at the time was Orval Faubus. Before the Little Rock Crisis, Faubus had been popular and supportive of both the white and black communities. When this situation arose, however, politics ruled the direction in which Faubus leaned. Gov. Faubus was up for reelection. No man had yet been elected for a 3rd term as governor of Arkansas.
Apparently someone told the man that if he firmly supported preventing the desegregation of the school he would get his third term. His plan worked. The night before the Little Rock Nine were to go to Central High School, Gov. Faubus appeared on television and stated that he would have the Arkansas National Guard in front of the school to prevent the black children’s entry. He claimed that it was “for the protection of the children”. Faubus had no proof yet he claimed that a violent resistance had been planned and this was for the good of the blacks.
Faubus created a self-fulfilling prophecy and sure enough, a violent mob stood outside the school the following day. Daisy Bates, the president of the NAACP at the time, had called all of the children to her house the morning they were to attend Central High School. Only eight were in attendance. Elizabeth Eckford did not have a phone and missed the call. The girl was unaware of the plans to drive to Fourteenth Street together. While the eight, along with Daisy Bates tried to gain access on Fourteenth Street, Elizabeth Eckford faced a mob of some 200 white people shouting and threatening her alone on Sixteenth Street. The National Guard prevented entry to the school on both sides. Elizabeth escaped the crowd onto a bus with the assistance of a white lady named Grace Lorch. Faubus met with President Eisenhower on Sept.
14. The Arkansas governor had hoped to convince the president to help him defy the federal court order. Eisenhower refused and suggested that Faubus use the National Guard to protect the black students. Instead, Faubus withdrew himself and the National Guard from the school and left the students to fend for themselves. The next day, another mob awaited the students’ arrival. Three black reporters had traveled to the school in a car in front of the Little Rock Nine. Unaware that the nine were planning on entering a side door, the three reporters pulled up to the front steps. When word got out that the nine had safely made it into the school, the three reporters were accused of acting as decoys and were mauled.
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Only hours after the students had made it into the building, they were herded into the main office because the mob had broken into the school and were rampaging. Someone in the office actually considered the possibility of allowing the mob to lynch just one of the black children to appease them. The nine were successfully and safely evacuated from the school regardless. Eisenhower was in a tight spot. He was not a firm supporter of the black movement, and both Congress and the Senate leaned towards the south. However, if he refused to do anything to enforce the court order in Little Rock, he would rightfully be accused of not supporting the Brown decision. Eisenhower sent the 101st Air Division into Little Rock, and on Sept. 25, the Little Rock Nine successfully attended Central High School.
The Little Rock Crisis was basically a showdown between the federal government and the community. The government had to prove to the white community that it had the teeth to enforce a federal court order if the situation grew out of control. I think the federal government’s successful intervention had more impact than was thought at the time. The executive branch didn’t just prove that they’d impose desegregation by force. It proved that it could impose any court order by force. Their intervention made the community think twice about opposing the government.
The integration of Central High School was a landmark step not only for the black movement but for the government as well.
