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- Collection:
- Land of (Unequal) Opportunity: Documenting the Civil Rights Struggle in Arkansas
- Title:
- Lesson from Little Rock
- Publisher:
- Fayetteville, Ark. : University of Arkansas Libraries
- Date of Original:
- 1957
- Subject:
- African Americans--Arkansas
Civil rights--Arkansas
Race discrimination--Arkansas
Segregation--Arkansas - People:
- Cartwright, Colbert S., 1924-
- Location:
- United States, Arkansas, 34.75037, -92.50044
- Medium:
- essays
- Type:
- Text
- Format:
- application/pdf
- Description:
- Essay by Reverend Colbert C. Cartwright condemning the Little Rock School Board for not better preparing for integration.
Integration -- Desegregation -- African-Americans -- Blacks -- Little Rock Central High School -- Little Rock (Ark.) -- Virgil Blossom -- Little Rock -- Pulaski
LESSON FROM LITTLE ROCK - On the day that Arkansas National Guardsmen first formed a cordon around Little Rock's Central High School to block the entry of nine Negro students, a Lutheran pastor had the occasion to make a sick call at a house across from the school. As he walked past a rocket launcher partially blocking the street, he asked one of the guardsmen if he thought such heavy weapons were necessary. 'If you'll pardon the expression, sir" was the reply, "I feel like a damned fool - protecting 2,000 white high-school students from 9 colored students." There are many aspects of the Little Rock school crisis which can only be termed foolish - regardless of one's choice of theological modi- fiers. However, behind Gov. Orval E. Faubus' action lie facets of the Little Rock school problem which are in danger of being overlocked. It will be tragic if the Nation sees nothing more at Little Rock than a pic- ture of Faubus' folly. Others Share Responsibility The Little Rock school board and Superintendent Virgil Blossom must share responsibility for the Little Rock debacle. Their whole approach to the task of making a transition from a dual to an integrated school system unwittingly invited the drastic action which Gov. Faubus took on Sept. 2 when he called out the Nation Guard. It has been Faubus' contention that the Little Rock community "is not in the condition to have integration at the moment." This is a judg- ment impossible to prove or disprove. Many observers are convinced that the transition would have been made with a minimum of trouble if the Gov. had not interfered. There are other persons of both races who have watched with growing alarm the school board's development of an approach to the problem with disregarded everything experience has taught us about human nature. The Arkansas Gazette summarized that approach accurately: (1) The Little Rock plan of integration was voluntarily evolved by Little Rock School board over a period of 3 years. It was a legal design intended to accomplish the minimum integration over the longest period of time permissable under the Supreme Court ruling. (2) The plan was presented to the people of Little Rock in these terms and fully explained. School Superintendent Virgil Blossom himself made an estimated 200 speeches in this 3-year period setting forth the plan in detail to intereted white and colored parent groups. The general attitude of Dr. Blossom in explaining the plans for integration to white groups was that the prospect was as distasteful to him and the school board as to anyone else. His argument rested solely on the fact that the school board knew no way to get around the Supreme Court decision. He emphasized the wisdom of the school board's desingning its own deliberate program to avoid having to take a faster route if a Federal district court should delineate a plan. The superintendent ex- plained the plan to anyone who would listen. He asked help from no one. The Louisville Approach This approach to preparing the community for the mingling of the races in public schools revealed no awareness of the lessong taught by troublesome Clinton, Tenn., or peaceful Louisville, KY. Superintendent Omer Charmichael, of Louisville, has said that one thing was plain to him from the beginning: Preparation for so racial a change has little hope of success unless it is a community wide program. In the Louisville story he explains the manner un which he sought to involve the whole community in a discussion of desegregation. He solicited help from parent-teacher associations, the Kentucky Council on Human Relations, churches and church- related groups, women's clubs, civic groups, and other organizations. He - Metadata URL:
- http://digitalcollections.uark.edu/cdm/ref/collection/Civilrights/id/1335
- IIIF manifest:
- https://digitalcollections.uark.edu/iiif/2/Civilrights:1335/manifest.json
- Additional Rights Information:
- Please contact Special Collections for information on copyright.
- Contributing Institution:
- University of Arkansas, Fayetteville. Libraries
- Rights:
-