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Home , Elizabeth Eckford, Little Rock Nine

Administration of William J. Clinton, 1997 / Sept. 25

calls from banks to assure that they are not wage and salary costs for Federal personnel. routing funds in violation of these prohibitions. Personnel costs were largely centered in the De- United States exporters have also been notified partment of the Treasury (particularly in the of the sanctions through a variety of media, in- Office of Foreign Assets Control, the U.S. Cus- cluding via the Internet, Fax-on-Demand, spe- toms Service, the Office of the Under Secretary cial fliers, and computer bulletin board informa- for Enforcement, and the Office of the General tion initiated by OFAC and posted through the Counsel) and the Department of State (particu- U.S. Department of Commerce and the U.S. larly the Office of Southern African Affairs). Government Printing Office. There have been I will continue to report periodically to the no license applications under the program since Congress on significant developments, pursuant my last report. to 50 U.S.C. 1703(c). 3. The expenses incurred by the Federal Gov- WILLIAM J. CLINTON ernment in the 6-month period from 26, 1997, through September 25, 1997, that are di- The White House, rectly attributable to the exercise of powers and September 24, 1997. authorities conferred by the declaration of a na- tional emergency with respect to UNITA are NOTE: This message was released by the Office approximately $50,000, most of which represent of the Press Secretary on September 25.

Remarks on the 40th Anniversary of the Desegregation of Central High School in Little Rock, September 25, 1997

The President. Governor and Mrs. Huckabee; black and white dress, carrying only a notebook, Mayor and Mrs. Dailey; my good friend Daisy surrounded by large crowds of boys and girls, Bates; and the families of Wiley Branton and men and women, soldiers and police officers, Justice . To the cochairs of her head held high, her eyes fixed straight this event, Mr. Howard, and all the faculty and ahead. And she is utterly alone. staff here at Central High; to Fatima and her On September 4th, 1957, fellow students; to all my fellow Americans: Hil- walked to this door for her first day of school, lary and I are glad to be home, especially on utterly alone. She was turned away by people this day. And we thank you for your welcome. who were afraid of change, instructed by igno- I would also be remiss if I did not say one rance, hating what they simply could not under- other word, just as a citizen. You know, we stand. And America saw her, haunted and taunt- just sent our daughter off to college, and for ed for the simple color of her skin, and in 81⁄2 years she got a very good education in the the image we caught a very disturbing glimpse Little Rock school district. And I want to thank of ourselves. We saw not ‘‘one Nation under you all for that. God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all,’’ On this beautiful, sunshiny day, so many won- but two Americas, divided and unequal. derful words have already been spoken with so much conviction, I am reluctant to add to them. What happened here changed the course of But I must ask you to remember once more our country here forever. Like Independence and to ask yourselves, what does what happened Hall, where we first embraced the idea that here 40 years ago mean today? What does it God created us all equal; like Gettysburg, where tell us, most importantly, about our children’s Americans fought and died over whether we tomorrows? would remain one Nation, moving closer to the Forty years ago, a single image first seared true meaning of equality; like them, Little Rock the heart and stirred the conscience of our Na- is historic ground, for surely it was here at Cen- tion, so powerful most of us who saw it then tral High that we took another giant step closer recall it still: a 15-year-old girl wearing a crisp to the idea of America.

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Elizabeth Eckford along with her eight of money. But in that store, in the way he schoolmates were turned away on September treated his customers and encouraged me to 4th, but the did not turn back. play with their children, I learned America’s Forty years ago today, they climbed these steps, most profound lessons: We really are all equal. passed through this door, and moved our Na- We really do have the right to live in dignity. tion. And for that, we must all thank them. We really do have the right to be treated with Today we honor those who made it possible, respect. We do have the right to be heard. their parents first—as Eleanor Roosevelt said I never knew how he and my grandmother of them, ‘‘To give your child for a cause is came to those convictions, but I’ll never forget even harder than to give yourself’’; to honor how they lived them. Ironically, my grandfather my friend and Wylie Branton and died in 1957. He never lived to see America Thurgood Marshall, the NAACP, and all who come around to his way of thinking. But I know guided these children; to honor President Eisen- he’s smiling down today, not on his grandson hower, Attorney General Brownell, and the men of the 101st Airborne who enforced the Con- but on the Little Rock Nine, who gave up their stitution; to honor every student, every teacher, innocence so all good people could have a every minister, every Little Rock resident, black chance to live their dreams. or white, who offered a word of kindness, a But let me tell you something else that was glance of respect, or a hand of friendship; to true about that time. Before Little Rock, for honor those who gave us the opportunity to me and other white children, the struggles of be part of this day of celebration and rededica- black people, whether we were sympathetic or tion. hostile to them, were mostly background music But most of all, we come to honor the Little in our normal, self-absorbed lives. We were all, Rock Nine. Most of us who have just watched like you, more concerned about our friends and these events unfold can never understand fully our lives, day-in and day-out. But then we saw the sacrifice they made. Imagine, all of you, what was happening in our own backyard, and what it would be like to come to school one we all had to deal with it. Where did we stand? day and be shoved against lockers, tripped down What did we believe? How did we want to stairways, taunted day after day by your class- live? It was Little Rock that made racial equality mates, to go all through school with no hope a driving obsession in my life. of going to a school play or being on a basket- Years later, time and chance made Ernie ball team or learning in simple peace. Green my friend. Good fortune brought me to [At this point, there was a disturbance in the the Governor’s office, where I did all I could audience.] to heal the wounds, solve the problems, open the doors so we could become the people we The President. Speaking of simple peace, I’d say we want to be. like a little of it today. I want all these children here to look at these Ten years ago, the Little Rock Nine came people. They persevered, they endured, and back to the Governor’s Mansion when I was they prevailed. But it was at great cost to them- there. I wanted them to see that the power selves. As Melba said years later in her wonder- of the office that once had blocked their way ful memoir, ‘‘Warriors Don’t Cry,’’ ‘‘My friends now welcomed them. But like so many Ameri- and I paid for the integration of Little Rock cans, I can never fully repay my debt to these Central High with our innocence.’’ nine people. For with their innocence, they pur- Folks, in 1957 I was 11 years old, living 50 chased more freedom for me, too, and for all miles away in Hot Springs, when the eyes of white people—people like Hazel Brown the world were fixed here. Like almost all south- Massery, the angry taunter of Elizabeth Eckford, erners then, I never attended school with a per- who stood with her in front of this school this son of another race until I went to college. week as a reconciled friend. And with the gift But as a young boy in my grandfather’s small of their innocence, they taught us that all too grocery store, I learned lessons that nobody often what ought to be can never be for free. bothered to teach me in my segregated school. Forty years later, what do you young people My grandfather had a sixth grade education in this audience believe we have learned? Well, from a tiny rural school. He never made a bit 40 years later, we know that we all benefit—

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all of us—when we learn together, work to- lives can be turned around if, but only if, we gether, and come together. That is, after all, are prepared to do what it takes. It is a fact what it means to be an American. that there are still too many places where our Forty years later, we know, not withstanding children die or give up before they bloom, some cynics, that all our children can learn, where they are trapped in a web of crime and and this school proves it. Forty years later, we violence and drugs. But we know this too can know when the constitutional rights of our citi- be changed, but only if we are prepared to zens are threatened, the National Government do what it takes. must guarantee them. Talk is fine, but when Today, children of every race walk through they are threatened, you need strong laws faith- the same door, but then they often walk down fully enforced and upheld by independent different halls. Not only in this school but across courts. America, they sit in different classrooms. They Forty years later, we know there are still more doors to be opened, doors to be opened wider, eat at different tables. They even sit in different doors we have to keep from being shut again parts of the bleachers at the football game. Far now. Forty years later, we know freedom and too many communities are all white, all black, equality cannot be realized without responsibility all Latino, all Asian. Indeed, too many Ameri- for self, family, and the duties of citizenship, cans of all races have actually begun to give or without a commitment to building a commu- up on the idea of integration and the search nity of shared destiny and a genuine sense of for common ground. For the first time since belonging. the 1950’s, our schools in America are resegre- Forty years later, we know the question of gating. The rollback of affirmative action is slam- race is more complex and more important than ming shut the doors of higher education on a ever, embracing no longer just blacks and new generation, while those who oppose it have whites, or blacks and whites and Hispanics and not yet put forward any other alternative. Native Americans, but now people from all parts In so many ways, we still hold ourselves back. of the Earth coming here to redeem the prom- We retreat into the comfortable enclaves of eth- ise of America. nic isolation. We just don’t deal with people Forty years later, frankly, we know we’re who are different from us. Segregation is no bound to come back where we started. After longer the law, but too often separation is still all the weary years and silent tears, after all the rule. And we cannot forget one stubborn the stony roads and bitter rides, the question fact that has not yet been said as clearly as of race is, in the end, still an affair of the it should: There is still discrimination in Amer- heart. ica. But if these are our lessons, what do we have There are still people who can’t get over it, to do? First, we must all reconcile. Then we who can’t let it go, who can’t go through the must all face the facts of today. And finally day unless they have somebody else to look we must act. Reconciliation is important not only for those down on. And it manifests itself in our streets who practice bigotry but for those whose resent- and in our neighborhoods and in the workplace ment of it lingers, for both are prisons from and in the schools. And it is wrong. And we which our spirits must escape. If Nelson have to keep working on it, not just with our Mandela, who paid for the freedom of his peo- voices but with our laws. And we have to engage ple with 27 of the best years of his life, could each other in it. invite his jailers to his inauguration and ask even Of course, we should celebrate our diversity. the victims of violence to forgive their oppres- The marvelous blend of cultures and beliefs and sors, then each of us can seek and give forgive- races has always enriched America, and it is ness. our meal ticket to the 21st century. But we And what are the facts? It is a fact, my fellow also have to remember, with the painful lessons Americans, that there are still too many places of the civil wars and the ethnic cleansing around where opportunity for education and work are the world, that any nation that indulges itself not equal, where disintegration of family and in destructive separatism will not be able to neighborhood make it more difficult. But it is meet and master the challenges of the 21st cen- also a fact that schools and neighborhoods and tury.

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We have to decide—all you young people than it was for these nine people, and look how have to decide—will we stand as a shining exam- far they took themselves with their education. ple or a stunning rebuke to the world of tomor- The true battleground in education today is row? For the alternative to integration is not whether we honestly believe that every child isolation or a new , it is dis- can learn and we have the courage to set high integration. academic standards we expect all our children Only the American idea is strong enough to to meet. We must not replace the tyranny of hold us together. We believe, whether our an- segregation with the tragedy of low expectations. cestors came here in slave ships or on the I will not rob a single American child of his Mayflower, whether they came through the por- or her future. It is wrong. tals of Ellis Island or on a plane to San Fran- My fellow Americans, we must be concerned cisco, whether they have been here for thou- not so much with the sins of our parents as sands of years, we believe that every individual with the success of our children, how they will possesses the spark of possibility, born with an live, and live together, in years to come. If those equal right to strive and work and rise as far nine children could walk up those steps 40 years as they can go, and born with an equal responsi- ago all alone, if their parents could send them bility to act in a way that obeys the law, reflects into the storm armed only with schoolbooks and our values, and passes them on to their children. the righteousness of their cause, then surely to- We are white and black, Asian and Hispanic, gether we can build one America, an America Christian and Jew and Muslim, Italian- and that makes sure no future generation of our Vietnamese- and Polish-Americans and goodness children will have to pay for our mistakes with knows how many more today. But above all, the loss of their innocence. we are still Americans. Martin Luther King said, At this schoolhouse door today, let us rejoice ‘‘We are woven into a seamless garment of des- in the long way we have come these 40 years. tiny. We must be one America.’’ Let us resolve to stand on the shoulders of The Little Rock Nine taught us that. We can- the Little Rock Nine and press on with con- not have one America for free, not 40 years fidence in the hard and noble work ahead. Let ago, not today. We have to act. All of us have us lift every voice and sing, till Earth and Heav- to act. Each of us has to do something. Espe- en ring, one America today, one America tomor- cially our young people must seek out people row, one America forever. who are different from themselves and speak God bless the Little Rock Nine, and God freely and frankly to discover they share the bless the United States of America. Thank you. same dreams. All of us should embrace the vision of a color- blind society, but recognize the fact that we NOTE: The President spoke at 11 a.m. on the front are not there yet and we cannot slam shut the steps of Central High School. In his remarks, he doors of educational and economic opportunity. referred to Gov. Mike Huckabee of Arkansas and All of us should embrace ethnic pride and we his wife, Janet; Mayor Jim Dailey of Little Rock should revere religious conviction, but we must and his wife, Patti; Daisy Bates, NAACP attorney reject separation and isolation. All of us should in 1957; Rett Tucker and Gail Reede Jones, event value and practice personal responsibility for cochairs; Rudolph Howard, principal, and Fatima ourselves and our families. And all Americans, McKendra, student body president, Central High especially our young people, should give some- School; and the Little Rock Nine: Elizabeth thing back to their community through citizen Eckford, , , Glo- service. All Americans of all races must insist ria Ray Karlmark, Carlotta Walls LaNier, Thelma on both equal opportunity and excellence in Mothershed-Wair, , Jefferson education. That is even more important today Thomas, and Minnijean Brown Trickey.

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