Violence Associated with Integration at Little Rock Central High The Little Rock Nine as Individuals - Essay Example

?Violence Associated with integration at Little Rock Central High: The Little Rock Nine as individuals Introduction: In 1957, some African American students were enrolled in Little Rock Central High school. Till that time, the racialism in America was on its peak and there were many incidents of brutality against the people with dark skins (Bates, 1962). Little Rock incident or crisis as it is usually called is a proof of the same kind of racial discrimination. Oryal Faubus was the Governor of Arkansas at that time. Faubus tried to stop the students who were African-Americans to enter the school. This was solely on the basis of racial issues. Initially the students had to face a lot of trouble to stay in the school as the Governor was against allowing them to even enter the school. They were allowed to enter the school, join the classes and finally graduate from this school after the intervention of President Eisenhower (Lanier, 2009). By the mid of 20th century, the African-American movement of equal civil rights was also on its peak. Considering the changes that were taking place in the social fabric of American life, people were becoming less extremist and thus the African-Americans were being accepted as normal human beings by many. Faubus was however not one of them. When these kids were to attend the school on their first day, they were stopped by the National Guard. Troops from National Guard of Arkansas tried to stop these kids from entering the school and once these African-Americans entered the school, they were harassed by mobs making threats to them. It was of course not a very pleasant situation for them (Kirk, 2008). By that time, the historic 1954 verdict of U.S. Supreme court was already out. According to this verdict of Brown vs. Board of Education in 1954, all segregated schools were considered to be not following the constitution of America. The American constitution is not in favor of racial discrimination. However, before 1954, many segregated schools operated in the U.S. as there was no fully defined law against these schools. By 1954, all schools which were segregated and did not allow students from African-American origin to get admission and study were asked to desegregate and allow all students on the basis of merit to get admission in this school. This was a time when National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) was fully active. This organization tried to get registered as many black students as possible in the schools which were good but were all white only a couple of years before. Their attempts were more successful in the south. Violence Associated with the Little Rock Nine Crises: Little Rock School Board of Arkansas decided to go with the Supreme Court ruling in 1955. They passed their own plan of integration of black students in 1955. Virgil Blossom was the superintendent of schools and his plan which was approved was to be implemented from 1957, the year these Little Rock nine got admission in this school. By the efforts of NAACP, nine black students were admitted to this school in 1957 (Gordy, 1997). These kids were selected on the basis of their educational background and the grades they have acquired so far. The Little Rock 9 was a name given to this group of black students who joined this school in 1957. Their names were Green, Eckford, Thomas, Roberts, LaNier, Brown, Karlmark, Mothershed and Beals. Earnest Green who was born in 1941 was the first one of these black students to graduate from this school (Faubus, 1980). When these students were admitted to this school a lot of people who wanted segregation on the basis of racial discrimination held protests against this school. The first violent reaction to the admission of these students to the school was the blockade by these protestors to not allow the students to enter the school. Governor Orval Faubus helped them further by deploying National Guard troops to stop these students from entering the school premises. He was clearly in favor of segregation. In the nation however, there was a different kind of attitude. The line of troops blocking these young kids from entering a school after the U.S. Supreme Court has ordered no segregation was noticed by one and all. Eckford, one of the Nine, when asked about that incident said that the troops were moving in. They came closer and the crowd also came closer. The crowd was yelling at the black students. There was no one to help. As Eckford recalls, there was an old woman in the crowd and she spat on Eckford. Though the mob and the governor’s National Guard tried to snub the rightful African-American Students, the District issued a statement in favor of the students and condemned this act of violence against the youngsters. The president himself reminded Faubus about the Supreme Court ruling (Faubus, 1980). Although the U.S. government was keen to remove racial discrimination, the Governor of Arkansas was still very biased. As a result of this situation the president had to intervene. The 101st Airborne Division troops were sent to Little Rock by the president and they were ordered to desegregate these schools and protect these nine students who were admitted to the school on the basis of merit. The matter was taken out of the governor’s hand as his biasness was evident in this case (Faubus, 1980). The year as a whole was very tense for the nine students. Under the president’s instructions, they were enrolled and admitted to Little Rock Central High, but they had to go through a lot of verbal abuse as well as physical abuse. The white students called names and also spat on their black counter fellows. Pattillo suffered acid burns as someone threw acid in her eyes. Brown, another female student of the nine remembers to be confronted and verbally abused. Brown mentioned that there was very little social contact of positive nature by the white students. She also recalls that the authorities told them not to fight back in case of any incident till things could be considered under control once again. Boys also tormented some of the black girls by passing nasty remarks. This kind of incidents always led to the punishment of black students. The white students always got a favor and although they made the same silly mistakes, they were only reprimanded if their crime was witnessed by an adult. The black students had to be a lot tougher (Jacoway, 2007). Conclusion: Faubus still had his animosity left in him and launched his petition against the Federal order. This postponed the desegregation and a year of the black student’s life was wasted. When his petition of delay in segregation was not accepted, he signed an act and closed down all schools for both white and for black students. Faubus won the referendum and the people of the community also voted in favor of his petition. This resulted in a one year closer of schools which is why this year is called as the “Lost” year. Faubus was not allowed to carry on with his venomous approach by the government but the time which was spent in the movement of desegregation was tough for the head of NAACP, Bates, the nine students who were enrolled in Little Rock High School and for their families (Bates, 1962). In the later decades, not only Americans but people from other parts of the world have condemned this approach of Governor Faubus and others. References: Daisy Bates, The Long Shadow of Little Rock: A Memoir (New York: David McKay Company, Inc., 1962), 151. Elizabeth Jacoway, Turn Away Thy Son: Little Rock, the Crisis That Shocked the Nation (New York: Free Press, 2007), 477. Orval Faubus, Down from the Hills (Little Rock: Democrat Printing & Lithographing, 1980), 510. Sondra Gordy, Empty Hearts: Little Rock Secondary Teachers, 1958-1959. (Arkansas: The Arkansas Historical Quarterly, 1997), 428. John Kirk, An Epitaph for Little Rock: A Fiftieth Anniversary Retrospective on the Central High Crisis (Arkansas: University of Arkansas Press, 2008), 75. Carlotta Lanier, A Mighty Long Way: My Journey to Justice at Little Rock Central High School (New York: Random House, 2009), 54. Read More