Little Rock Central High School National Park Service National Historic Site U.S. Department of the Interior Lesson #3 “Great things happen in small places...” Government Authority and Civil Rights Activism in Arkansas (1954-1959) Grade Level: 9-12 Objectives: * To comprehend the desegregation crisis at Little Rock Central High School in 1957. * To identify the Arkansas State Legislature, its role in the crisis at Little Rock Central High School, and the attributes of effective leadership. * To comprehend the way legal appeals through the federal court systems, combined with grass roots organizations (church communities, neighborhoods) and individual activism, caused change at Little Rock Central High School. * To feel the depth of emotion held by all sides of the struggle and encourage respect for personal opinion. Ties to the Arkansas History Frameworks: (grades 9-12) TCC1.1, TCC1.2, TCC1.3, TCC1.4, TCC2.2., TCC2.3, PPE1.1, PPE1.2, PAG4.1, PAG4.2, PAG4.3, PAG4.4, SSPS1.1, SSPS1.2, SSPS1.3, SSPS1.4, SSPS1.5, SSPS1.6. Ties to the Social Studies Frameworks (U.S.): (grades 9-12) TCC1.1, TCC1.2, TCC1.3, TCC1.5, TCC1.6, TCC2.1, TCC2.2, TCC2.4, PPE1.1, PPE1.5, PPE1.7, PPE1.8, PPE2.7, PAG1.1, PAG1.2, PAG1.3, PAG1.4, PAG1.5, PAG1.6, PAG2.1, PAG2.2, PAG2.3, SSPS1.1, SSPS1.2, SSPS1.3, SSPS1.4. In 1954, the Supreme Court of the United States unanimously declared in a landmark court case, Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, that it was unconstitutional to create separate schools for children on the basis of race. The Brown ruling ranks as one of the most important U.S. Supreme Court decisions of the 20th century. At the time of the decision, 17 southern states and the District of Columbia required that all public schools be racially segregated. A few northern and western states, including Kansas, left the issue of segregation up to individual school districts. In 1957, the Brown decision affected the citizens of Little Rock, Arkansas, when nine African-American students chose to attend the previously all-white Little Rock Central High School. For months, the attention of the state, nation, and world were turned to Arkansas and the heroic efforts of nine teenage students and local civil rights leaders as they fought for equality in central Arkansas’ educational system. The desegregation, which officially occurred under federal troop protection on September 25, 1957, set a precedent for many other communities and states to follow. Elizabeth Eckford attempting to enter Little Rock Central High School, 1957. Photograph by Will Counts. Courtesy of the Arkansas History Commission. Continued on next page Grassroots Activism in Arkansas Grass roots activism in the United jobs with the Little Rock School District. simply too expensive to maintain separate States took the form of organizations The ruling was overturned in 1945. facilities. like the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People Working from the inside, dean of the Daisy and L.C. Bates were actively (NAACP), who directly challenged University of Arkansas law school, Robert involved in desegregating Little Rock’s segregation and disfranchisement while Leflar, convinced the university board of schools. Bates used his newspaper, the becoming involved in high profile trustees that African-Americans should be Arkansas State Press, as a forum for lawsuits and criminal cases in support admitted to the school. In 1948, the first grassroots activism in Arkansas and his African-American law student, Silas Hunt, of African-American civil rights. wife was the state president of the NAACP entered the University of Arkansas. A year in Arkansas in 1952. Parents of students Founders of the Little Rock chapter of later, the University of Arkansas for wishing to attend Little Rock Central High the NAACP included a who’s who of Medical Sciences admitted Edith Irby School filed a lawsuit against the Little African-American elite in the city: A.E. without incident and with the support of Rock public schools and the Bates and C.E. Bush (sons of John Bush who African-American activists. supported their cause. As a result, the founded the African American Bates witnessed their share of violent organization, Mosaic Templars of Another grass roots organization, the reaction: burning crosses, bombs, verbal America, in Little Rock in 1882), G.W. interracial Arkansas Council on Human abuse, and the bankruptcy of their Ish, a physician, Joseph A. Booker, Relations (ACHR) organized in 1954 to newspaper due to economic sanctions president of Arkansas Baptist College, help promote understanding between the placed on them by local segregationists in Dr. James M. Robinson, physician, and races. Ministerial alliances, so important an advertising boycott of the paper. Issac Gilliam, a politician. In 1928, they to the Civil Rights Movement in other sought to challenge the white primary southern states, were organized in While adults worked outside the schools system in Arkansas, but the New York Arkansas to encourage the church men for integration, some children fought office of the NAACP would not and women to mediate racial disputes. inside the schools for better race relations. provide funding because it was The ACHR was loosely associated with a In Fayetteville (Washington County), the involved in cases in other southern ministerial alliance in Atlanta, Georgia, and high school had been quietly integrated states and did not want to spread its received some of is funding from that since 1954. Incidents of racial violence resources too thin. source. Harry Ashmore - a journalist were the exception rather than the rule. who would play a significant role in One student remembered that they often Two organizations that were founded covering the crisis at Little Rock Central handled the tension themselves without in Arkansas and worked to bring civil High School - was one of its organizers. In involving a teacher or administrator. rights to African Americans included the year before the crisis at Little Rock However, at Little Rock Central High the Arkansas National Democratic Central High, the ACHR held a meeting at School, racial tensions were high among Camp Aldersgate to begin discussions on students perhaps because of all the Association (ANDA), founded by Dr. ensuring peaceful integration at the school. attention. Elizabeth Huckaby, English James M. Robinson, and the Their actions were watched by the instructor and vice principle for girls, kept Committee on Negro Organizations Arkansas State Police, who also recorded a folder outlining incidents that included (CNO). Harold Flowers, an attorney their license plate numbers. The group name-calling, vandalism, shoving, and from Pine Bluff, founded the CNO planned a “Brotherhood Week” at which fighting against the nine African-American because of his frustration with the local ministers (both African-American students during the 1957-1958 school year. ANDA’s lack of success. He wanted to and white) spoke. Perseverance in the midst of crisis led bring together African-American Ernest Green to be the first African- political organizations to challenge the In 1954, Charleston (Franklin County), American student to graduate from Little voter registration system in Arkansas. Arkansas, desegregated its schools, Rock Central High School in 1958. He followed by Fayetteville (Washington and many others blazed a path for the The Little Rock Classroom Teachers County). School administrators, church many African American students who Association (CTA) was the African- officials, University of Arkansas came later - proving that even young American affiliate to the Arkansas Teachers employees, and the public worked together people can create change for the better. Association (ATA). In 1942, the group to integrate that city’s high school. It was requested that the Little Rock School successful and took place without many Board equalize salaries between African- incidents of racial unrest. Following this, American and white faculty and other districts worked to integrate their administrators. The ATA refused to assist schools and public facilities, such as Hoxie the CTA, causing the NAACP to bring a (Lawrence County), which integrated its lawsuit against the Little Rock School schools in 1955. Despite protest from Board. The U.S. District Court ruled segregationists, these three schools against the CTA and several persons integrated in 1955 largely because it was involved in the suit were fired from their 2 Activism In the 1960s, the Student Non- Violent Coordinating Committee Quotations from Crisis (SNCC) came to Arkansas to fight for African-American voting rights. “Our objective is to secure the prompt and orderly end of segregation in the SNCC identified Arkansas as a state public schools. We want all children, regardless of race, to have the that needed special attention and opportunity to go to the public schools nearest their homes.” (J.C. launched the “Arkansas Project” in Crenchaw, President, LR Chapter of the NAACP, February 8, 1956) 1963 at Philander Smith College and the AM&N College in Pine Bluff (now “The Negroes have ample and fine schools here and there is no need for known as the University of Arkansas this problem except to satisfy the aims of a few white and Negro revolu- at Pine Bluff). They paid attention to tionaries in the local Urban league and the [NAACP].” (Robert E. Brown, many Delta towns where the African- President, Capital Citizens Council, July 1957) American population was high and voter registration low. They first “We are confident that the citizens of Little Rock will demonstrate on turned their attention to integrating Tuesday for the world to see that we are a law abiding people (Arkansas public facilities, such as Woolworths, Gazette editorial, September 1, 1957) whose segregated lunch counters were the target of sit-ins by students. “Blood will run in the streets...” (Governor Orval Faubus, September 2, In the Delta, SNCC set up “freedom 1957) centers” where African-Americans could meet to discuss their problems.