Little Rock Crisis

The Little Rock Desegregation Crisis was an international symbol of the early American Civil Rights movement in 1957.

Desegregating Little Rock before 1957

The stage for the Little Rock Crisis was set by the U.S. Supreme Court decision of Brown v. Board of Education (1954). The Brown decision overturned the "separate but equal" provisions set up in Plessy v. Ferguson (1896), leading to Jim Crow segregation in Little Rock and elsewhere in the American South. The response of the Little Rock School Board and the local chapter of the NAACP is to comply with the Brown decision as an act of "good faith," citing Little Rock's tradition of moderation where race is concerned.

In 1955 Little Rock School Board superintendent Virgil Blossom formulates a plan to integrate Central High School. The NAACP votes to sue the school district in federal court. Arkansas Governor Orval Faubus maintains that efforts to desegregate schools are most appropriately handled at the local level. State's rights activists resist integration on the grounds of interposition: forced federal integration is considered both dangerous and unconstitutional.

In 1956 Judge John E. Miller sides with the school district's plan in the case of Cooper v. Aaron. The decision is appealed to the U.S. Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals where it is upheld in the case of Aaron v. Cooper in early 1957. The case is not appealed further, but the NAACP recommends that black students begin enrolling at Central High for the fall semester. Segregationists in Little Rock complain that the effects of integration of Central High will fall hardest on middle class and poor whites in the city as affluent all-white Hall High School will remain segregated.

On August 22, 1957, local segregationists invite Georgia governor Marvin Griffin to an interpositionist rally in Little Rock. Blossom, Faubus, and other school officials meet to discuss a possible violent backlash if Central High is immediately desegregated.

The Crisis of 1957-1958

On September 2, 1957, Faubus announces in televised remarks that the Arkansas National Guard will be called out to prevent the integration of Central High, citing the high potential for violent demonstration. The immediate crisis is precipitated on September 4, 1957, as Governor Faubus and the National Guard bars the doors of Central High in order to to prevent nine black students from attending classes. Faubus states that he remains convinced that "[b]lood will run in the streets" if the school is integrated. Student Elizabeth Eckford attempts to enter the school and is turned away.

On September 23, 1957, President Dwight D. Eisenhower orders 1,000 federal troops into the capitol city to restore order and enforce a federal court order integrating Central High School. A segregationist mob forces local police to lead the students away in the middle of the day. Paratroopers drawn from the U.S. Army's 101st Airborne Division begin escorting nine black students, the Little Rock Nine, to the school doors on September 25, 1957.

On May 27, 1958, senior Ernest Green becomes the first African American graduate of Central High School.

In August 1958 the U.S. Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals overturns a June order of Judge Lemley, stemming from Cooper v. Aaron, for a two-and-one-half year delay in the integration of Little Rock schools. The school board, which had asked for the delay, appeals to the U.S. Supreme Court. The Court reviews the Cooper decision in a special session from August 25-September 29, 1958. The U.S. Supreme court orders on September 15th that desegregation proceed without delay. In response, Faubus closes all four high schools in Little Rock.

1958: The "Lost Year"

In a September 27, 1958, referendum Little Rock residents vote to keep all public schools closed rather than accept integration of facilities. This prompts the formation of a number of citizen's action organizations, including the Capital Citizens' Council, the Mother's League of Central High, and the Women's Emergency Committee to Open Our Schools (WEC). All members of the school board resign except for segregationist Dale Alford. Blossom's contract as superintendent is bought out.

Wihout schools to attend some white students begin attending the hastily organized private T. J. Raney High School in October 1958.

In December 1958 school board elections the WEC successfully places three moderates on the board. Segregationist candidates take the other three seats. In May 1959 the moderate bloc on the board walks out after other board members attempt a purge of teachers with integrationist leanings. Forty four teachers are summarily released at the board meeting. The mass firing prompts male leadership in the city to form the group Stop This Outrageous Purge (STOP). Segregationists form the Committee to Retain Our Segregated Schools (CROSS) in response. Both groups ask for a recall election of current board members. In the ensuing recall election of May 25, 1959, the three segregationist board members are removed and replaced by three moderates endorsed by both the WEC and STOP.

Aftermath and ongoing struggle

The Little Rock Crisis is widely acknowledged as a harbinger of economic hardship and population loss for the city. No major industries entered the local marketplace until the arrival of agricultural and swimming pool pump manufacturer Jacuzzi Brothers in the early 1960s.

Black leaders under Worth Long demanded the desegregation of public and commercial spaces in the city of Little Rock in 1962. Long first met with the Little Rock City Council, and then took his demands to the local Retail Merchant's Association (RMA). The RMA responded by asking the Greater Little Rock Chamber of Commerce to respond to Long's complaints. Chamber member Will Mitchell remembered that at the time "civic leaders did not want the City Board to take any action, for such negotiation might get them into election difficulties."

In October 1962 Bill Hansen announced an imminent sit-in at the Woolworth's lunch counter on Main Street. Little Rock Unlimited Progress director Willard A. Hawkins, faced with ongoing protests, announced that the Chamber of Commerce was creating a special Downtown Negotiating Committee to address the problem. Worthen Bank president James Penick agreed to serve as the chair of this negotiating committee. The committee agreed that downtown businesses must desegregate by January 1, 1963. Apparently unaware of the decision or the deadline or concerned about the strength of promises made, local students launched a sit-in at lunch counters on December 1, 1963. Lunch counters were desegregated on January 1, 1963. Main Street motion picture theaters were desegregated on June 1, 1963. Thirty-eight restaurants desegregated on September 1, 1963; six restaurant owners refused the order.

The Civil Rights Act of 1964 which threatened to cut federal funding for schools that refused to make legitimate efforts to desegregate led to a rapid waning of resistance to integration in Little Rock schools. Between 1964 and 1965 the number of African American students in local integrated schools climbed from 213 to 621. By the 1967-1968 school year Central High had enrolled 415 black students, Metropolitan Vocational School had 142, and Hall High School had five.

In an informal survey, members of the Arkansas Historical Association named the Little Rock Crisis the most significant historical event of the twentieth century.

References

• Karen Anderson, "The Little Rock School Desegregation Crisis: Moderation and Social Conflict," Journal of Southern History 70.3 (August 2004): 603-637.
• Tony A. Freyer, Little Rock on Trial: Cooper v. Aaron and School Desegregation, (Lawrence: University Press of Kansas, 2007).
• Elizabeth Jacoway and C. Fred Williams, eds., Understanding the Little Rock Crisis: An Exercise in Remembrance and Reconciliation (Fayetteville: The University of Arkansas Press, 1999).
• David L. Kirp, "Retreat into Legalism: The Little Rock School Desegregation Case in Historic Perspective," PS, Political Science & Politics 30.3 (September 1997): 443-448.
• Irving J. Spitzberg, Jr., Racial Politics in Little Rock: 1954-1964 (New York: Garland Publishing Company, 1987).
• Shelby Steele, "The Legacy of Little Rock," Wall Street Journal, September 25, 2007.