Statement by Virgil Blossom Regarding Integration

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Collection:: Land of (Unequal) Opportunity: Documenting the Civil Rights Struggle in Arkansas
Title:: Statement by Virgil Blossom Regarding Integration
Publisher:: Fayetteville, Ark. : University of Arkansas Libraries
Date of Original:: 1956-03-14
Subject:: African Americans--Arkansas
Civil rights--Arkansas
Race discrimination--Arkansas
Segregation--Arkansas
People:: Bates, Daisy
Crenshaw, J.C.
Darragh, Fred
Ashmore, Harry S.
Shropshire, Jackie L.
Williams, Thad
Location:: United States, Arkansas, 34.75037, -92.50044
Medium:: documents (object genre)
Type:: Text
Format:: application/pdf
Description:: Statement of Virgil Blossom regarding Daisy Bates and the integration of Central High School in 1957.
Integration -- Blacks -- African-Americans -- Education -- Little Rock Central High School -- National Association for the Advancement of Colored People -- Little Rock -- Pulaski
March 14, 1956 STATEMENT OF VIRGIL BLOSSOM Mrs. Bates has been the official spokesman for the liberal group of the colored race through her position as State President of NAACP in every instance whether it has been official School Board meeting or whether it has been in a limited conference with me. She has been present at discussions involving NAACP leaders, Human Relations Committee leaders and Urban League leaders. She was present in the back of the room at Gibbs School when I, in a pre-school conference, told our plan of integration to the colored teachers of the Little Rock Public School System. In each instance she has been dissatisfied with the plan. She has tried to hurry integration at every opportunity . She has tried to bring about simultaneous integration from grades 1 to 12 in everything she has done. I have had a number of conferences with her trying to explain the unreasonableness of her requests. The only term I know to use is a number - I would say half a dozen, but I would not want to be pinned down. I have talked to her in the office here by herself. She has been present every time whether there has been a formal request of the School Board, whether it has been jus a small com- mittee, and she was present one time with an Interracial Committee of the Human Relations group when both colored and whites were there, and has, in each instance, seemed to be their chief spokesman. That has been true before the School Board. She says she is repre- senting NAACP and she is the State President. If they have a Secretary I do not know the name. The only two names I have heard are Mrs. Daisy Bates, who is the President of the Arkansas Chapter, and J.C. Crenshaw, 709 West 9th Street, who is the President of the Little Rock branch of NAACP. Crenshaw has been present at discussions with Mrs. Bates I had a meeting with a committee representative at their request representing the NAACP and the Human Relations group - that is the interacial group - that came in here one day and asked for an appointment to discuss the whole thing. The people who were present
Metadata URL:: http://digitalcollections.uark.edu/cdm/ref/collection/Civilrights/id/1717
IIIF manifest:: https://digitalcollections.uark.edu/iiif/2/Civilrights:1717/manifest.json
Additional Rights Information:: Please contact Special Collections for information on copyright.
Original Collection:: University of Central Arkansas Archives and Special Collections, Richard C. Butler Papers (M 88-02)
Contributing Institution:: University of Arkansas, Fayetteville. Libraries
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