Little Rock Integration

» Bill_Samuel - Good article!

Thanks for the article, Kelly. You mention the Quaker family that took a student in. As a matter of fact, there is a long history of Quakers working to support the education of African-Americans dating from the slavery era.

The organizer of the famous March on Washington at which Martin Luther King Jr, gave his I Have a Dream speech was a Quaker. Folks may want to read the Quakerism article on Bayard Rustin.

Seven years after that famous day at Central High in Little Rock, our family had moved to Lawrenceville in southern Virginia. My parents taught at St. Paul's College, where one of my sisters was the first white student. It was the first year of so-called "freedom of choice" integration.

A hearty band of a dozen African-Americans signed up to attend the formerly all-white Brunswick High School. The school system didn't decide until the last day what to do about busing. So they notified students of their bus arrangements by phone the day before. They couldn't notify us because the phone company resisted giving us a phone because they didn't like that we associated with African-Americans. So I just went with a neighbor on campus who was going to the same school. It turned out the buses were segregated. Our bus served the black high school and then did an extra run for us, meaning we got to school late every day. It served us first in the afternoon, meaning we had to leave a little early.

When we walked in the first day, there was an opening assembly in progress. There, they read out a list of names of people to go to a separate assembly. That list was everyone on my bus except me, whom they did not yet have categorized. In the white assembly, they announced that it was normally their policy to welcome new students, but this year it was their policy to ostracize new students. This policy was not enunciated in the separate assembly, but of course I filled in my friends on my bus. The policy was largely followed. There was only one white student at the school who would speak to me in other than a hostile manner.

This was a most interesting year for me, and I certainly learned a lot about race in America during that year.

-- posted by Bill_Samuel

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» BuckyRea - Excellent article

I think the events at Little Rock in 1957, tho terribly simplified in the history I got in school, stands out as one of the greatest chapters in the Civil Rights Movement.

I especially thank you for carrying the story foreward, past the arrival of the federalized National Guard (where most accounts end), to show that resistance to integration continued in more extreme forms well after the country thought the problems were "solved." In some ways I think what happened after the integration finally happened is the most important part of the story.

I learned from this, and the book you cited is now definitely on my shopping list.

-- posted by BuckyRea

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» Terrie_Bittner - I saw some of the Little Rock students on television one day, bo

I saw some of the Little Rock students on television one day, both white and black. What interested me was what the white students had learned over time from the experience. Some of them had come on the program for the express purpose of apologizing, and they shared that they had learned a great deal about themselves, most of it unpleasant for many of them. One girl, encouraged by her family to be kind and helpful to these students, couldn't find the courage to cahllenge what her friends were doing. Some did nothing good or bad, only to realize later that doing nothing was not a neutral act-it only helped the bad to continue. Others tried to justify what they were doing because their families approved, realizing later that they had been old enough to choose for themselves. It was a tremendous learning experience for everyone involved, I think. It's a time that has always fascinated me. Thanks for a great article.

-- posted by Terrie_Bittner

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» Car - Little Rock

Another great article Kelly! The Little Rock incident rings true in a lot of the hearts of America. I couldn't imagine what it would be like to be denied the right to an education. Think of all the opportunities I would have missed. Yet, if it weren't for those brave students (God were they young as well!! what courage) many of us wouldn't have gotten that chance.

Still, I find it funny that these days, its a "privilege" in some areas to want to go to exclusive schools that segregate in such a manner. Thankfully, there aren't many like this out there. And those that are there don't exclude others from joining.

-- posted by Car

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