- Collection:
- Land of (Unequal) Opportunity: Documenting the Civil Rights Struggle in Arkansas
- Title:
- Advertising Copy of Superintendent Blossom's Book
- Publisher:
- Fayetteville, Ark. : University of Arkansas Libraries
- Date of Original:
- 1959
- Subject:
- African Americans--Arkansas
Civil rights--Arkansas
Race discrimination--Arkansas
Segregation--Arkansas - Location:
- United States, Arkansas, 34.75037, -92.50044
- Medium:
- copies (documents)
- Type:
- Text
- Format:
- application/pdf
- Description:
- Copy of text to be included on the cover of Virgil Blossom's book " It Has Happened Here."
Integration -- Desegregation -- African-Americans -- Blacks -- Little Rock Central High School -- Little Rock (Ark.) -- Virgil Blossom -- Little Rock -- Pulaski
Front of jacket copy for IT HAS HAPPENED HERE by Virgil T. Blossom The former Superintendent of Schodis in Little Rock, Arkansas, reveals how a law-abiding American city, striving to solve a harsh and complex problem by democratic means, was demoralized and dominated by certain power-hungry men coldly exploj_ ting the passions of their neighbors. *********************** Preliminary description of IT HAS HAPPENED HERE Around the broad-shouldered figure of Virgil T o Blosser burst the full violence of the school. segrega tion conflict which shattered the public peace, divided the nation and gave comfort to our enemies. In his capacity as Superin- tendent of Schools in Little Rock, Arkansas, Mr. o Blossom was, for more than four years, the storm center around whom the controversy raged. In the first place he is an educa.tor and school adriinistrator - not only by profession but by cormmitment. Because he is an educator and neither a poli- tician nor a proselytizer he sees the school segregation issue in profoundly practical terms -- not as a focus for contradictory passions, nor even a.s an over- arching philosophical problem but as a question which intimately and explicitly affects the policy and day-to-day detail of public education in the South. Sur- rounded by fanatics he is a man dedicated to the rational and the real. In the second place he is, by temperarnent and conviction, a moderate. As a Southerner he understands the intensity of the opposition to desegregation; as a firm believer in the democratic process he has refused to recognize lawlessness as a means of political action. In the third place, he is a man of extraordinary physical and moral courage. In 1955 Mr. Bloaaom'a fellow citizens voted him the "Little Rock Man of the Year". In 1957 those self -same qualities of professional integrity, moderation and courage which had won him the award marked him out as the man the die-hard segre- gationists had to get. He received forty- five threats to bomb his school; his life was threatened ; his home was threatened; he was shot at on streets of Little Rock But he would not back down. - Metadata URL:
- http://digitalcollections.uark.edu/cdm/ref/collection/Civilrights/id/710
- IIIF manifest:
- https://digitalcollections.uark.edu/iiif/2/Civilrights:710/manifest.json
- Additional Rights Information:
- Please contact Special Collections for information on copyright.
- Contributing Institution:
- University of Arkansas, Fayetteville. Libraries
- Rights:
-
Advertising Copy of Superintendent Blossom's Book
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