Called, The Little Rock Nine

Under escort from the U.S. Army’s 101st Airborne Division, nine black students enter all-white Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas. Three weeks earlier, Arkansas Governor Orval Faubus had surrounded the school with National Guard troops to prevent its federal court-ordered racial integration. After a tense standoff, President Dwight D. Eisenhower federalized the Arkansas National Guard and sent 1,000 army paratroopers to Little Rock to enforce the court order.

On May 17, 1954, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled unanimously in Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka that racial segregation in educational facilities was unconstitutional. Five days later, the Little Rock School Board issued a statement saying it would comply with the decision when the Supreme Court outlined the method and time frame in which desegregation should be implemented.

Arkansas was at the time among the more progressive Southern states in regard to racial issues. The University of Arkansas School of Law was integrated in 1949, and the Little Rock Public Library in 1951. Even before the Supreme Court ordered integration to proceed “with all deliberate speed,” the Little Rock School Board in 1955 unanimously adopted a plan of integration to begin in 1957 at the high school level. The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) filed suit, arguing the plan was too gradual, but a federal judge dismissed the suit, saying that the school board was acting in “utmost good faith.” Meanwhile, Little Rock’s public buses were desegregated. By 1957, seven out of Arkansas’ eight state universities were integrated.

In the spring of 1957, there were 517 black students who lived in the Central High School district. Eighty expressed an interest in attending Central in the fall, and they were interviewed by the Little Rock School Board, which narrowed down the number of candidates to 17. Eight of those students later decided to remain at all-black Horace Mann High School, leaving the “Little Rock Nine” to forge their way into Little Rock’s premier high school.

In August 1957, the newly formed Mother’s League of Central High School won a temporary injunction from the county chancellor to block integration of the school, charging that it “could lead to violence.” Federal District Judge Ronald Davies nullified the injunction on August 30. On September 2, Governor Orval Faubus—a staunch segregationist—called out the Arkansas National Guard to surround Central High School and prevent integration, ostensibly to prevent the bloodshed he claimed desegregation would cause. The next day, Judge Davies ordered integrated classes to begin on September 4. 

September 4, 1957: Arkansas troops block “Little Rock Nine” from segregated high school

That morning, 100 armed National Guard troops encircled Central High School. A mob of 400 white civilians gathered and turned ugly when the black students began to arrive, shouting racial epithets and threatening the teenagers with violence. The National Guard troops refused to let the black students pass and used their clubs to control the crowd. One of the nine, 15-year-old Elizabeth Eckford, was surrounded by the mob, which threatened to lynch her. She was finally led to safety by a sympathetic white woman.

Little Rock Mayor Woodrow Mann condemned Faubus’ decision to call out the National Guard, but the governor defended his action, reiterating that he did so to prevent violence. The governor also stated that integration would occur in Little Rock when and if a majority of people chose to support it. Faubus’ defiance of Judge Davies’ court order was the first major test of Brown v. Board of Educationand the biggest challenge of the federal government’s authority over the states since the Reconstruction Era.

The standoff continued, and on September 20 Judge Davies ruled that Faubus had used the troops to prevent integration, not to preserve law and order as he claimed. Faubus had no choice but to withdraw the National Guard troops. Authority over the explosive situation was put in the hands of the Little Rock Police Department.

On September 23, as a mob of 1,000 whites milled around outside Central High School, the nine black students managed to gain access to a side door.

However, the mob became unruly when it learned the black students were inside, and the police evacuated them out of fear for their safety. That evening, President Eisenhower issued a special proclamation calling for opponents of the federal court order to “cease and desist.” On September 24, Little Rock’s mayor sent a telegram to the president asking him to send troops to maintain order and complete the integration process. Eisenhower immediately federalized the Arkansas National Guard and approved the deployment of U.S. troops to Little Rock. That evening, from the White House, the president delivered a nationally televised address in which he explained that he had taken the action to defend the rule of law and prevent “mob rule” and “anarchy.”

On September 25, the Little Rock Nine entered the school under heavily armed guard.

Troops remained at Central High School throughout the school year, but still the black students were subjected to verbal and physical assaults from a faction of white students. Melba Patillo, one of the nine, had acid thrown in her eyes, and Elizabeth Eckford was pushed down a flight of stairs. The three male students in the group were subjected to more conventional beatings. Minnijean Brown was suspended after dumping a bowl of chili over the head of a taunting white student. She was later suspended for the rest of the year after continuing to fight back. The other eight students consistently turned the other cheek. On May 27, 1958, Ernest Green, the only senior in the group, became the first black to graduate from Central High School.

Governor Faubus continued to fight the school board’s integration plan, and in September 1958 he ordered Little Rock’s three high schools closed rather than permit integration. Many Little Rock students lost a year of education as the legal fight over desegregation continued. In 1959, a federal court struck down Faubus’ school-closing law, and in August 1959 Little Rock’s white high schools opened a month early with black students in attendance.

All grades in Little Rock public schools were finally integrated in 1972

The Constitutional Convention decided that the first federal election was to be held on Wednesday the following February.

On that day George Washington was elected as the first president of the United States.

In addition, New York City was named the temporary national capital.

1759 – The French were defeated by the British on the Plains of Abraham in the final French and Indian War.

1788/1787 – The Constitutional Convention decided that the first federal election was to be held on Wednesday the following February. On that day George Washington was elected as the first president of the United States. In addition, New York City was named the temporary national capital.

1789 – The United States Government took out its first loan. 

1847 – U.S. forces took the hill Chapultepec during the Mexican-American War.

1862 – During the American Civil War General Lee’s Order No. 191 was found by federal soldiers in Maryland.

1898 – Hannibal Williston Goodwin patented celluloid photographic film, which is used to make movies.

1922 – In El Azizia, Libya, the highest shade temperature was recorded at 136.4 degrees Fahrenheit.

1935 – Aviator Howard Hughes, Jr., of Houston, set a new airspeed record of 352 mph with his H-1 airplane (Winged Bullet).

1937 – The first broadcast of “Kitty Keene, Incorporated” was heard on the NBC Red network.

1943 – Chiang Kai-shek became the president of China.

1948 – The School of Performing Arts opened in New York City. It was the first public school to specialize in performing arts.

1948 – Margaret Chase Smith was elected to the U.S. Senate and became the first woman to serve in both houses of the U.S. Congress. 

1949 – The Ladies Professional Golf Association of America was formed.

1959 – The Soviet Union’s Luna 2 became the first space probe to reach the moon. It was launched the day before.

1960 – The U.S. Federal Communications Commission banned payola. 

1970 – The first New York City Marathon took place. Fireman Gary Muhrucke won the race.

1971 – In New York, National Guardsmen stormed the Attica Correctional Facility and put an end to the four-day revolt. A total of 43 people were killed in the final assault. A committee was organized to investigate the riot on September 30, 1971.

1971 – The World Hockey Association was formed.

1977 – The first diesel automobiles were introduced by General Motors.

1981 – U.S. Secretary of State Alexander M. Haig said the U.S. had physical evidence that Russia and its allies used poisonous biological weapons in Laos, Cambodia and Afghanistan. 

1988 – Forecasters reported that Hurricane Gilbert’s barometric pressure measured 26.13. It was the strongest hurricane ever recorded in the Western Hemisphere. 

1993 – Israel and Palestine signed their first major agreement. Palestine was granted limited self-government in the Gaza Strip and in Jericho.

1994 – U.S. President Bill Clinton signed a $30 billion crime bill into law.

1998 – The New York Times closed its Web site after hackers added offensive material.

2001 – U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell named Osama bin Laden as the prime suspect in the terror attacks on the United States on September 11, 2001. Limited commercial flights resumed in the U.S. for the first time in two days.

On September 13, 2007, the United Nations adopts the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. The declaration, which defines the rights of the planet’s Indigenous peoples to their respective ways of life and prohibits discrimination against them, is a watershed moment for groups that often struggle for representation at the international level.

The fight for Indigenous recognition within international institutions is older than the UN itself. In 1920, the Haudenosaunee Confederacy (also known as the Iroquois Six Nations) applied for membership in the UN’s predecessor, the League of Nations, but the bid went nowhere. Progress came in 1974, when representatives from 98 nations across the Western Hemisphere gathered in South Dakota to form the International Indian Treaty Council, which was recognized by the UN as a non-governmental organization with consultative status. 

In 1982, the UN Economic and Social Council’s Working Group on Indigenous Populations began working to set a standard of protection for Indigenous populations. Throughout the 1990s and early 2000s, various drafts of a declaration of Indigenous rights were circulated, with movement finally coalescing behind a document that proclaims Indigenous peoples’ rights to cultural practices, to maintain and strengthen their own institutions, to full participation in all matters concerning how they are governed and to remain distinct from the people around them without being discriminated against or forced to assimilate.

Source: history.com For the complete article

Valerie Banks was the only student to show up for her geography class at South Boston High School on the first day of court-ordered busing, Sept. 12, 1974. (AP)

First of two parts. Here’s Part 2. Note: Report contains some offensive language.

BOSTON — With Boston public school students back in class, we recall a very different start to school 40 years ago. Then, classes began a week late to give students, schools and the police extra time to prepare for the first day of court-ordered desegregation.

Earlier that summer of 1974, federal District Court Judge W. Arthur Garrity ruled that the Boston School Committee had deliberately segregated the city’s schools, creating one system for blacks and another for whites — separate, unequal and unconstitutional.

The remedy to achieve racial balance and desegregate schools was busing. Some 18,000 black and white students were ordered to take buses to schools outside of their neighborhoods.

‘The Words. The Spit.’

Here’s how The Boston Globe headlined that first day of court-ordered busing: “Boston Schools Desegregated, Opening Day Generally Peaceful”. The headline was reassuring, if not exactly accurate. It was only Phase 1 of the federal desegregation plan. Just 59 of 201 schools were desegregated that day, and it was far from peaceful at South Boston High School.

Southie was ground zero for anti-busing rage. Hundreds of white demonstrators — children and their parents — pelted a caravan of 20 school buses carrying students from nearly all-black Roxbury to all-white South Boston. The police wore riot gear.

“I remember riding the buses to protect the kids going up to South Boston High School,” Jean McGuire, who was a bus safety monitor, recalled recently. “And the bricks through the window. Signs hanging out those buildings, ‘Nigger Go Home.’ Pictures of monkeys. The words. The spit. People just felt it was all right to attack children.”

One of those children was Regina Williams.

“I had no idea what to expect [with] this busing thing,” Williams said. “I didn’t know anything about South Boston. I didn’t know anything about, you know, they didn’t like us. I didn’t know anything that was in store for us. But when we got there, it was like a war zone.

“I came back and I told my mom, and I’ll never forget, I said, ‘Ma, I am not going back to that school unless I have a gun.’ At 14 years old. I am not going back to that school.”

To read more … wbur.org/news

• Part 2: Busing Left Deep Scars On Boston, Its Students
• Timeline Of Events: Boston School Desegregation And Busing