ARKANSAS GOV USES NATIONAL GUARD TO HALT INTEGRATION
Little Rock, Arkansas (JFK+50) On September 4, 1957, Arkansas Governor Orval Faubus* directed the Arkansas National Guard to stop nine African-American students from attending the first day of classes at all-white Central High School here in Little Rock.
A Federal District Court had ruled earlier in the year that Central High School was to be desegregated. A crowd of angry white citizens gathered outside the school.
One of the Little Rock Nine, Elizabeth Eckford, said...
"They moved closer and closer. I tried to see a friendly face...in the crowd. I looked into the face of an old woman and it seemed a kind face but when I looked at her again, she spat on me."
Governor Faubus would later claim...
"The Supreme Court shut its eyes to all the facts...(in support of) integration at any price, even if it means the destruction of our school system, their economic processes, and risk of disorder and violence."
*Orval E. Faubus (1910-1994) was born in Combs, Arkansas & educated at Commonwealth College. OEF served as an intelligence officer in WWII & was Gov. of Arkansas (1955-1967). He ran for POTUS in 1960 on the National States Rights Party ticket winning 0.07% of the vote.
SOURCE
"Orval E. Faubus Speech on Integration," www.blackpast.org/
Gov. Orval Faubus
August 20, 1959
Little Rock, Arkansas
Photo by John T. Bledsoe
US News & World Report
Library of Congress
