A Turning Point in the Movement to Desegregate America's Public Schools

THE LnTLE ROCK SCHOOL CRISIS OF 1957: A TURNING POINT IN THE MOVEMENT TO DESEGREGATE AMERICA'S PUBLIC SCHOOLS AN INTERVIEW WITH "LITTLE ROCK NINE" MEMBER ERNEST G. GREEN BY PAUL MASSEY MR.WHITMAN AP UNITED STATES HISTORY 31 JANUARY 2001 OH MAS 2001 Massey, Paul Massey-1 TABLE OF CONTENTS L Contract Page 2 II. Statement of Purpose Page 3 III. Biography of Mr. Ernest G. Green Page 4 IV. Historical Contextualization, "The Little Rock School Crisis of 1957: A Turning Point in the Movement to Desegregate America's Public Schools" Page 5 V. Interview of Mr. Ernest G. Green (Part 1) Page 18 VI. Interview of Mr. Ernest G. Green (Part 2) Page 23 VII. Interview Analysis Page 33 VHI. Appendix Page 43 IX, WorksConsulted Page 44 ST. ANDREW'S EPISCOPAL SCHOOL INTERVIEWEE RELEASE FORM: Tapes and Transcripts I. Erhg--^"t ^^ ^reg)^ tio ]iej.e^,v gj^.^ y^ ti,^, gajni Aiidre\\'s Episcopal name of interviewee School all righl, title or interest in the tape-recorded interviews conducted by VcKx^K p.^ HCu^%r<^ on t^ / t*^ /oo. I understand that Ihese name of interviewer ' dale(s) interviews will be protected by cop\Tiglit and deposited in Saint AndrevVs Library' and Archives for the use of future students, educators and scholars. I also understand that the tapes and transcripts may be used in public presentations including, but not limited to, audio or video docimientaries, slide-tape presentations, exliibils, articles or the world wide web at the projects web site \n\'\v.doingoralhistor>.org This girt does not preclude any use that I myselfwant to make ofthe infonnation in these transcripts or recordings. The interviewee acknowledges that he/she \sill receive no remuneration or compensation for either his/her participation in the iJiterview or for the rights assigned hereunder. CHECK ONE: Tapes and transcripts may be used without restriction Tapes and transcripts are subject to the attached restrictions (T\ped) VIEWEE; INTER ignature of Interviewed T>ped Naine Typed Name Address Address Date Date 8804 Postoak Road • Potomac, Maryland 20854 • (301) 983-5200 • Fax: (301) 983-4710 • http:/A\'\\^v.saes.org Massey-3 STATEMENT OF PURPOSE The purpose of this oral history is to provide a more complete understanding ofthe Little Rock School Crisis of 1957, through an interview with Ernest G. Green. Mr. Green challenges and verifies a great deal ofthe existing knowledge about the event, while infusing the history of the crisis with emotion and feeling. In addition, Mr. Green's experience as an African American during the Jim Crow era enables him to examine the importance ofthe crisis in the greater context ofthe Civil Rights Movement. Massey-4 BIOGRAPHY OF ERNEST G. GREEN Ernest G. Green was born on September 22, 1941 in Little Rock, Arkansas. His father was a janitor and his mother a schoolteacher. He grew up in Little Rock, attending all-black Horace Mann High School until 1957, when he was selected to be a member ofthe "Little Rock Nme." These students integrated Little Rock Central High School following the 1954 Brown v. Board of Education decision by the U.S. Supreme Court. Mr. Green graduated from Central in 1958, and that year was the recipient ofthe NAACP's Springam Medal. Following high school, Mr. Green received a B.S. in social science, and an M.S. in sociology, from Michigan State University. He received honorary degrees from Tougaloo College and Central State University, and an honorary Ph.D. from Michigan State. Mr. Green formed Ernest Green and Associates, which served as a general consulting and economic advisory firm. President William J. Clinton appointed him Assistant Secretary of Labor for Employment and Training, where he served from 1993-1995. Since 1995, he has been employed as the Managing Director of Public Finance, Lehman Brothers, in Washington, D.C. In 1999, Mr. Green was awarded the prestigious Congressional Gold Medal. He currently serves as the Chair ofthe Board of Directors ofthe African Development Foundation, and serves on the Board of Directors ofthe Winthrop Rockefeller Foundation. He is also a member ofthe Historically Black Colleges and Universities Capital Financing Advisory Board, and ofthe Council on Foreign Relations. Mr. Green now resides with his family in Northwest Washington, D.C. Massey-5 THE LriTLE ROCK SCHOOL CRISIS OF 1957: A TURNING POINT IN THE MOVEMENT TO DESEGREGATE AMERICA \S PUBLIC SCHOOLS The movement to desegregate America's public schools stemmed from the fundamental longing of African Americans for equality, not from a mere desire to attend school with people of different racial backgrounds. Directed by the principle that no man can ever achieve equality in society without a decent education, the movement occurred in the midst of a Civil Rights struggle trying to gain the freedoms for African Americans that they had been continually denied. A landmark event was the 1954 decision in Brown v. Board of Education, in which a unanimous United States Supreme Court ordered the racial integration of white public schools. However, racist white citizens prevented this from occurring through intimidation, threats of violence, and the efforts of allied state and local political officials. It was not until 1957, in Little Rock, that the U.S. govemment finally stepped in with military force to implement Brown v. Board of Education. Therefore, the Little Rock School Crisis of 1957 was a turning point in the long struggle to desegregate public schools in America, and ultimately led to widespread integration and cautious respect for the law ofthe land. The institution of slavery in America was greatly responsible for the racism and discrimination that African Americans faced throughout history. Anglo-Saxon explorers enslaved and brutalized Africans, branding them with social and cultural stereotypes rooted solely in their physical differences (Stephen 4). Although the Declaration of Independence (1776) majestically proclaimed that all men are created equal, the original Constitution did not guarantee equality for black Americans. Slavery troubled the consciences of some ofthe Framers, Massey-6 yet "the Constitution they wrote accepted that most evil of inequalities" (Cox 251). The need for labor to harvest the British Colonies' tobacco supply led to an early influx of slaves, and the introduction of cotton as a crop in the United States in the eariy 19th century dramatically increased their numbers. In 1800, no more than 3,500 slaves harvested Mississippi's cotton crop, but by 1840 over 136,000 slaves performed the same task (Kluger 35). However, educating slaves would destroy the advantage of superiority that whites maintained, so slaves received vocational training, which generally benefitted the slave's owner. Public education under the Jeffersonian ideal that "democracy rests with the people" began in 1827 in Massachusetts (Stephen 5). However, from the beginning, African American slaves were excluded from this opportunity, worsening the divide between educated whites and uneducated blacks. The aftermath ofthe Civil War ftmdamentally altered the relationship between blacks and their white masters. The Thirteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution outlawed slavery in 1865, and the Fourteenth Amendment, ratified in 1868, declared blacks entitled to all rights of cifizens. However, these measures provoked the passage of harsh Black Codes in the South, measures that extended the discrimination and racism found in slavery. Although the Fifteenth Amendment granted blacks the right to vote in 1870, it was circumvented in the South by literacy tests and poll taxes (Stephen 6). As the South attempted to recover from its defeat in the Civil War, sentiments of anger and hostility towards blacks increased. Initial educational efforts taken by the federal govemment on behalf of the freed slaves were dismally ineffective. The Freedman's Bureau, established in 1866, succeeded in educating Massey-7 only five percent ofthe Southem black population. According to black activist and writer W.E.B. Dubois, the situation was no better in the North. In 1860, only seven percent of Northern blacks attended school (qtd in Stephen 7). In addition, blacks were humiliated, assaulted and sometimes murdered by violent post-reconstruction organizations like the Klu Klux Klan. In this racially charged context, a pivotal U.S. Supreme Court decision, Plessy v. Ferguson, was handed down. In 1896, Homer Plessy, a Southem black, boarded the white part of a train and was arrested. He pleaded that the equal protection language ofthe Fourteenth Amendment protected his rights, but an 8 to 1 Supreme Court decision nullified this claim. In an extremely biased interpretation ofthe amendment, Justice Brown wrote: "[The Fourteenth Amendment] could not... abolish distinctions based upon color...or a commingling ofthe two races upon terms unsatisfactory to either" (qtd in Kluger 73). Justice Brown went on to declare that segregation was not discrimination as long as their facilities were equal, and thus the doctrine of "separate but equal" was bom. The Supreme Court firmly stood on the legal precedent established by Plessy v. Ferguson, applying it even when facilities were distinctly imequal. In 1899, in Cumtnings v. Richmond County Board of Education, the Court upheld segregation even though separate facilities for blacks were clearly inferior to those reserved for whites. In 1908, the Court in Berea College V. Kentucky established the principle that any state could order segregation of its schools (Kluger 87). Blindly ignoring data which showed that every year in the South an average of $9.45 was spent on each white child for school, and only $2.90 on blacks, the Court continued to Massey-8 uphold Plessy v. Ferguson (Kluger 88). Jim Crow laws, wliich had come into existence as a result of Plessy v. Ferguson, broadened the discrunination against blacks. Historian Richard Kluger, commenting on this period of discrimination said, "By 1915, the black man in America had reason to lament his ever being freed" (100), However, the seeds of change were bemg sown.

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