Little Rock Central High School The Little Rock Central High School incident of 1957 in Arkansas brought international attention to the civil rights cause. The Montgomery Bus Boycott may have been important but it hardly had media appeal. Here at Little Rock, you had a state fighting against federal authority, national guard troopers facing professional paratroopers and a governor against a president. As part of a media circus, it proved compulsive viewing - but what happened was shown throughout the western world and brought the civil rights issue into the living rooms of many people who may have been unaware of what was going on in the South. Eisenhower had shown that he had little faith in measures to support the African American community in the South simply because he believed that a change of heart was required and that enforcement would not work - if anything, enforcement would make matters worse. However, 1957 also saw serious problems for Eisenhower over desegregated schools in Little Rock.
Great Depression 1. Herbert Hoover was president when the Great Depression began. He declared in March 1930, that the U.S. had “passed the worst” and argued that the economy would sort itself out. 6. 7. GCSE Bitesize: Why was it difficult for black Americans to gain equal rights in the USA in the 1950s and 1960s? Dust Bowl The Dust Bowl, also known as the Dirty Thirties, was a period of severe dust storms that greatly damaged the ecology and agriculture of the US and Canadian prairies during the 1930s; severe drought and a failure to apply dryland farming methods to prevent wind erosion (the Aeolian processes) caused the phenomenon.[1] Extensive deep plowing of the virgin topsoil of the Great Plains during the previous decade had displaced the native, deep-rooted grasses that normally trapped soil and moisture even during periods of drought and high winds. Rapid mechanization of farm implements, especially small gasoline tractors and widespread use of the combine harvester, significantly impacted decisions to convert arid grassland (much of which received no more than 10 inches (250 mm) of precipitation per year) to cultivated cropland. The Dust Bowl forced tens of thousands of families to abandon their farms. Causes Settlement was encouraged by the Homestead Act of 1862. Geographic characteristics
Little Rock School Desegregation (1957) Three years after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled unanimously in Brown v. Board of Education that separate educational facilities are inherently unequal, nine African American students—Minnijean Brown, Terrance Roberts, Elizabeth Eckford, Ernest Green, Thelma Mothershed, Melba Patillo, Gloria Ray, Jefferson Thomas, and Carlotta Walls—attempted to integrate Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas. The students, known as the Little Rock Nine, were recruited by Daisy Bates, president of the Arkansas branch of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). As president of the Montgomery Improvement Association, Martin Luther King wrote President Dwight D. Eisenhower requesting a swift resolution allowing the students to attend school. On 4 September 1957, the first day of school at Central High, a white mob gathered in front of the school, and Governor Orval Faubus deployed the Arkansas National Guard to prevent the black students from entering. References
true Little Rock Central High School Integration Home » Events » Little Rock Central High School Integration Background: The desegregation of Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas, gained national attention on September 3, 1957, when Governor Orval Faubus mobilized the Arkansas National Guard in an effort to prevent nine African American students from integrating the high school. After several failed attempts to negotiate with Faubus, President Dwight D. Archival Collections and Reference Resources Educator Resources
Decades Later, Desegregation Still On The Docket In Little Rock : Code Switch hide captionEight of the nine black students who integrated Little Rock Central High School walk from school to their waiting Army station wagon on Oct. 2, 1957. Ferd Kaufman/AP Eight of the nine black students who integrated Little Rock Central High School walk from school to their waiting Army station wagon on Oct. 2, 1957. In Little Rock, Ark., on Monday, a federal judge is considering a deal that would end one of the longest-running and most notorious school desegregation cases in the country. Little Rock has long been the symbol of the South's violent reaction to Brown v. In 1957, nine black students who tried to integrate Central High School were met by an angry white crowd. President Eisenhower sent federal troops to force integration back then. "It is the last sequel in a lineage of cases going back nearly 60 years," says longtime political columnist Ernie Dumas. Little Rock sued the state and the districts around it for maintaining a segregated education system.
Little Rock Nine - National Historic Site - Arkansas Tourism Central High In September of 1957, the country was changed forever by the “Crisis at Central High”—one of the first federally ordered integration acts. At that time, the United States was a nation of racial inequalities and segregation. When nine courageous black students dared to challenge racial segregation in public schools by enrolling at the all-white Central High School, the “Little Rock Nine” became an integral part of the fight for equal opportunity in America. History of the Little Rock Nine & Brown v. In 1954, the Supreme Court's Brown v. In September of 1957, the public school ruling was tested for the first time when the “Little Rock Nine” enrolled at Little Rock’s previously all-white Central High School. The list below details the sequence of events before, during and after the desegregation attempt. September 4 - Nine black students, known as the “Little Rock Nine” attempt to enter Central High but are turned away by the National Guard. September 24 - U.S. Visitor's Center
Brave Hearts: Remembering the Little Rock Nine, 1957 Civil Rights Movement '50s Beyond religion, beyond class, beyond politics and ideology, for centuries race been the single most contentious, corrosive question in America’s national dialog. Nothing has illuminated our failings as a people as harshly as our handling of racial strife; nothing has more clearly shown us at our best and our bravest as the men and women in the great struggles of the Civil Rights Movement. For generations who have grown up in a country where blatant segregation is (technically, at least) illegal, it’s beyond bizarre to think that within living memory African-American children once needed armed soldiers to escort them safely to school. The Little Rock Nine, as the teens came to be known, were African-American students who sought to attend Little Rock Central High School in the fall of 1957. A profile of Faubus published in the next week’s issue of LIFE noted that the governor spent several days holed up in his Little Rock mansion.
1950 à 1970 - La ségrégation aux États-Unis a) Les afro-américains dans le système scolaire : En 1954, la NAACP (National Association for the Advancement of Coloured People) remporte une grande victoire devant la Cour suprême, puisqu' elle déclare que la ségrégation scolaire va à l’encontre de la Constitution (arrêt Brown v. Topeka Board of Education). Décision confirmée par un décret de 1955 de l’administration Eisenhower : « La déségrégation scolaire devait se poursuivre aussi rapidement que possible ». Photo : Le maire de New York Robert Wagner félicitant neuf adolescents qui intègrent la Central High School de Little Rock en 1958. Cependant, afin d’éviter la déségrégation, le gouverneur Faubus demande la fermeture des écoles publiques lors d’une Assemblée d’État en août 1958 (129 000 voix favorable au refus de l’intégration raciale, 7 600 contre). Elizabeth Eckford devant le lycée de Little Rock, le 4 septembre 1957 1957 © Douglas Martin Ces propos valent aussi pour la photographie ci-dessus. 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10.
Integration of Central High School - Black History In the following weeks, federal judge Richard Davies began legal proceedings against Governor Faubus, and President Dwight D. Eisenhower attempted to persuade Faubus to remove the National Guard and let the Little Rock Nine enter the school. Judge Davies ordered the Guard removed on September 20, and the Little Rock Police Department took over to maintain order. The police escorted the nine African-American students into the school on September 23, through an angry mob of some 1,000 white protesters gathered outside. Amidst ensuing rioting, the police removed the nine students. The following day, President Eisenhower sent in 1,200 members of the U.S. Numerous legal challenges to integration continued throughout the year, and Faubus repeatedly expressed his wish that the Little Rock Nine be removed from Central High. Melba Patillo, for instance, was kicked, beaten and had acid thrown in her face.
Etats-Unis. La mixité en échec scolaire Les Noirs sont au sud, les Blancs au nord : aujourd’hui encore, sur une carte de Little Rock, la capitale de l’Arkansas, il est facile de distinguer les quartiers. Même Brian Schwieger, guide du musée de Central High School, consacré à la déségrégation raciale, fait le dessin à gros traits : «C’est simple, au nord de l’Interstate 230, vous avez les quartiers blancs et au sud, les Afro-Américains. En ville, on dit même que l’autoroute a été construite, dans les années 60, pour servir de frontière.» En plein cœur de Little Rock, le musée commémore la bataille qui a dû être menée en 1957 pour intégrer les premiers élèves noirs dans ce lycée public, jusqu’alors exclusivement blanc. Il avait fallu déployer l’armée fédérale pour escorter ces neufs lycéens et les protéger des agressions de leurs camarades blancs. L’année suivante, le gouverneur de l’Arkansas avait même préféré fermer tous les lycées publics de la ville plutôt que d’y accepter des Noirs. «Ambition, opportunité…»