Event of Little Rock, Arkansas (1957) - Case Study Example

Event of Little Rock, Arkansas (1957) Event of Little Rock, Arkansas (1957) In 1954, the U.S Supreme Court ruled out that racial discrimination in public schools and Little Rock Central High school becomes an international symbol of resistance of disintegration. On September 1957, Orval Faubus the Governor at that time deployed Arkansas National Guard to stop the black students from entering the school facility. This essay discusses the events that took place in Little Rock Central High School in Arkansas as result of disintegration of the facility.

This is with effect of U.S Supreme Court ruling against racial discrimination in public schools (Bates, 1962). A team of NAACP lawyers won a federal district court injunction to avert the governor from blocking entry of the students. Police escorts helped the students to successfully enter the school through a side entry on 23 September 1957 (Bates, 1962). Due to high escalating levels of fear and mob violence, the students were rushed home soon afterward. Police were in control of the unruly mob when nine African-American students were escorted by police through a side entrance.

President Eisenhower issued an Executive Order 10730, dispatched units of the U.S. Army’s Airborne Division to Little Rock and decentralizing the Arkansas National Guard who escorted the nine students out of Little Rock High School. President Eisenhower as the chief law enforcement officer of the United States had a difficult moment in deciding the fate of this predicament. He wanted to uphold the Constitution and the laws, but also avoid a possible bloody conflict in Arkansas, where emotions ran high (Bates, 1962).

By the end of November, most of enforcement was turned over to U.S troops and National Guard troops. The aftermath of this escapade resulted to suspension of over a hundred students and four expelled due to campaign and physical abuse of the nine students. I view the president as slow and hesitance in providing the students with immediate responsive protection against the nine African-American due to the majority and superiority of the white community at that time. It is evidential that Governor Faubus was a racist against the African-American and unruly of any equality among them.

Reference Bates, D. (1962). The long shadow of Little Rock. New York: David McKay Co.