- 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
- 2 - were Mrs. Bates, J.C. Crenshaw, Harry Ashmore, Mrs. Ashmore, Fred Darragh, Jackie Shropshire and Thad Williams. The Secretary of the Human Relations Group was fired by Hendrix College after he became the Secretary of that Group. He is a white mn and ultra liberal. I would say that the meeting was held in July, 1955, at four o'clock in the afternoon and we staryed until after six o'clock. I explained the Plan, showed them the maps, went over it, and they sat there and questioned Mr. Ashmore as to whether he thought the lines were honestly drawn for creating the attendance areas. They want complete integration immediately. That is the only plan they have. NAACP has not been brought in and I have asked why they changed from the 1963 goal. They had a 1963 goal set up in Atlanta, Georgia. They published it, and Mrs. Bates had been to that meeting where the goal was set. They had athe meeting just prior to the meeting we are talking about. Mrs. Bates was just back from that meeting. I asked her about that and, as I recall, she didn't give me any satisfactory answer; that Little Rock was a situation of its own. That was published nationally as a result of this Atlanta convention. Mr. Ashmore said he could see nothing wrong with the lines. He didn't see how we could hurry this up, and he spent time wanting to talk to me about the Junior College in this particular meeting. I said, "I have nothing to do with the Junior College," and he said it would be a fine gesture on the part of the School Board to integrate the Junior College since you are asking them to wait at the public school level, and I said, "I cannot discuss that." Crenshaw says, "Why can't you integrate right now?" I have said psychological reasons, lack of facilities, lack of planning on student records, and it is an impossibility. They have demanded all grades at once. - Metadata URL:
- http://digitalcollections.uark.edu/cdm/ref/collection/Civilrights/id/1718
- IIIF manifest:
- https://digitalcollections.uark.edu/iiif/2/Civilrights:1718/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
- Rights:
-
Statement by Virgil Blossom Regarding Integration
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