Everything Everywhere Daily: History, Science, Geography & More - The Little Rock Nine

Starting point is 00:00:00 In 1957, nine black teenagers attempted to attend a public high school in Little Rock, Arkansas. Their arrival triggered protests, legal battles, interventions by the governor, and eventually the deployment of federal troops. What happened over the following months became a defining test of whether the United States would enforce its own constitution, even in the face of organized resistance. Learn more about the Little Rock Nine and their legacy on this episode of Everything Everywhere Daily. This episode is sponsored by What Could Go Right? The news has a way of making it feel like everything is getting worse, but what if that

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Starting point is 00:02:25 Following the end of the Civil War and the abolition of slavery, many southern states enacted policies to enforce racial segregation in both public and private spaces. These laws were collectively known as Jim Crow laws. Many of these policies used the doctrine of separate but equal. This loophole allowed states to bypass the 14th Amendment. and the amendment guaranteed all citizens born or naturalized in the United States the same protections as any other citizen. The 14th Amendment was critical in the expansion of civil rights, but the separate but equal doctrine did its best to negate the promised liberties of the amendment.

Starting point is 00:03:03 The separate but equal idea argued that segregation was constitutional so long as facilities provided for both black and whites were equivalent. States could segregate public facilities, education, and housing, under this policy. The separate but equal doctrine was challenged in the case of Plessy v. Ferguson before the Supreme Court in 1896. The court held that segregation did not violate the 14th Amendment so long as facilities for the two racial groups were equal. And while the Supreme Court may have ruled the doctrine of separate but equal as constitutional, the reality was far different.

Starting point is 00:03:42 In almost all cases, African Americans had univoroughly. inversely inferior facilities or provided no services at all. For decades after Plessy v. Ferguson, the black community felt the impacts. Their children were sent to lower-quality, overcrowded schools that were often unsafe. School buildings were usually inaccessible by public transportation. Children had to take treacherous walks just to get to school. Once inside, segregated schools had minimal resources. Most supplies were tattered hand-me-downs from white schools.

Starting point is 00:04:16 Black organizations like the NAACP understood the disastrous impact segregation was having on black communities and began to advocate for change. Starting in the 1940s, the NAACP's General Counsel, Charles Hamilton Houston, challenged the legality of separate but equal policies. As part of this attack, Houston recruited several lawyers, including Thurgood Marshall, who served as counsel to African Americans fighting segregation cases. Houston passed away in 1950, but in 1951, the team that he had assembled took a case that was identified as promising in the battle to desegregate public education. The case involved Oliver Brown, a resident of Topeka, Kansas. His daughter was denied enrollment at the nearest elementary school because of her race. She had to attend a black school located much further away. The route to the black school was dangerous. Brown's daughter had to walk several extra blocks and navigate a

Starting point is 00:05:14 rail yard in order to reach the closest bus stop. The Browns and other black families sued the Topeka Board of Education. The federal court immediately dismissed the case, citing the Plessy v. Ferguson ruling. However, the N.AACP's chief counsel, Thurgood Marshall, took immediate action after the ruling, appealing the case to the United States Supreme Court. The NACP presented new psychological evidence showing the cognitive impacts of segregation. The decision overturned, Plessy v. Ferguson in favor of Brown on May 17, 1954. The Supreme Court mandated the desegregation of all public schools in the United States. While Charles Hamilton Houston didn't live to see the verdict, his challenges to Plessy versus Ferguson earned him the title of the man who killed Jim Crow.

Starting point is 00:06:06 Even after the Supreme Court declared school segregation unconstitutional, actually implementing desegregation proved challenging. Immediately after the court decision, the NAACP took action to enroll black students in formerly white schools. Little Rock, Arkansas became a key site for integration efforts. The school board and school superintendent Virgil Blossom initially agreed to follow the court's ruling. Blossom's original plan was to complete the integration all at once. He wanted to act as a model for the rest of the South, demonstrating how integration could be done effectively. However, the initial plan was scrapped. It was ultimately decided to implement a gradual integration plan for black students

Starting point is 00:06:50 starting in the fall of 1957. They would start with one high school, Little Rock Central, then open up a junior high school for a few black students in 1960. The third stage of the plan was to desegregate a limited number of city grade schools. The final year of the plan was not finalized, but it's believed it would have occurred around 1963. The NAACP gave Blossom a chance to put his plan together, but he was very quickly disappointed. The school board gerrymandered the school district to ensure that there would be black majority and white majority schools. The new program allowed white students to choose

Starting point is 00:07:28 not to attend the black schools, but black students did not have the same say in where they could go. The NACP saw this as an attempt to maintain segregation and sued the school board. This lawsuit, along with the already angry white residents of Little Rock, led to increased tensions in the city. Despite this, the NAACP went forward and registered nine black students to attend Little Rock Central High. The nine students were chosen for their stellar grades and excellent attendance, making them ideal candidates for integration. These students became known as the Little Rock Nine. On the night of September 2, 1957, the day before the black black,

Starting point is 00:08:10 students were meant to attend their first day of school, multiple segregationist groups threatened to protest at Central High School and block the nine black students from entering the premises. Arkansas Governor Orville Fobis offered no assistance in the situation. Although he had initially agreed to follow the Supreme Court's decision, he ultimately did nothing. Because both the Southern Democrats and many of his constituents resisted integration, backing integration would mean losing his party's endorsement for the upcoming election, which would likely result in his loss of the governorship. To keep his position, Fobbus ordered the Arkansas National Guard to prevent black students from attending Little Rock Central. Fobbus claimed that the National Guard was

Starting point is 00:08:57 stopping an angry white mob that threatened integration. He claimed the guardsmen were there to protect the black students from the mob by keeping them out of school. And this has largely been debunked. Most historians believe the National Guard was. brought in to maintain segregation. If Governor Fobus wanted to protect the Little Rock Nine, he could have just used the guards to safeguard their entry into the school, not keep them out. Fobis's decision to prevent students from entering Central High was brought before a federal judge, who ruled on September 3rd that the governor and the National Guard needed to let the nine students into the school immediately. The governor, however, did not comply with the order.

Starting point is 00:09:40 On September 4th, a white mob and the National Guard stood in front of the school, once again, not letting the Little Rock Nine enter. Images of the mob and the National Guardsmen blocking the students became international news. Many people were horrified at the images of soldiers preventing kids from going to school. The black students reported that the mob spat on them, called them names, shouted slurs, issued death threats, and threw objects at them. The reactions of the mob, the governor, and the National Guard face some local and federal scrutiny. On September 9th, the Little Rock School District issued a statement condemning the use of the National Guard. On the federal level, President Dwight Eisenhower took action by summoning Favis to a meeting in Newport, Rhode Island on September 14th, where he warned the governor there would be consequences if he continued to defy the court.

Starting point is 00:10:34 The mayor of Little Rock, Woodrow Man, who supported school integration, also got involved, asking Eisenhower to send federal troops into the city to protect the nine black students and enforce the integration of the school. On September 24, 1957, President Eisenhower took action. He invoked the Insurrection Act of 1807, which authorizes the deployment of federal troops for law enforcement duties. The president sent the 101st Airborne Division into the city. He also federalized the Arkansas National Guard, removing it from Phobus's control. Black troops were initially not sent to Little Rock as there were fears that sending them would only escalate the violence. On September 25th, the Little Rock Nine finally entered Little Rock Central High School.

Starting point is 00:11:23 Federal troops escorted them through a side door. When the locals found out, another crowd tried to rush the school. The students attended class for three hours before being sent home for safety through a back entrance. Following the entry into the school, the 101st Airborne. were removed from Arkansas, although the now federalized National Guard remained on the ground. Each of the Little Rock Nine had guards assigned to them while they were in school. They escorted them to class, their lockers, and even the bathroom. And when not escorting the students, the guards waited outside the classroom in the hall. Despite having protection, the Little Rock Nine faced physical

Starting point is 00:12:02 and verbal abuse from their fellow students. While not every student engaged in these activities, very few stepped up to help or defend. them, and anybody who did face the same treatment. Two of the most disturbing actions taken against the Little Rock Nine included one of the girls, Melba Petillo, having acid thrown in her eyes. She also recalled being blocked in a bathroom stall and having pieces of flaming paper dropped down on her buyer peers. Despite facing all of this abuse, the black students were unable to respond.

Starting point is 00:12:35 One of the girls' Minnie Jean Brown was suspended after dropping a bowl of chili onto some boys, who refused to let her walk past them in the cafeteria. Later that year, she was expelled after calling a girl who had hit her with a purse, white trash. Many of the white students celebrated her expulsion by passing around cards that said, One down, eight to go. The remaining eight members of the Little Rock Nine completed their first year at school. One of them, Ernest Green, was a senior who became the first African-American student to graduate. After that first year, Little Rock continued to take steps to prevent any further desegregation of its schools.

Starting point is 00:13:15 The city of Little Rock also filed a lawsuit to delay school integration by a few years. This was championed by Governor Fobbus, who sought to delay the process by at least two and a half years. His argument was that any further integration of the schools was going to cause more violence. When federal courts dismiss the case, Fobbus decided to close all. all of Little Rock's high schools in 1958. Fobbus signed this bill closing down public schools and prevented students of all races from attending. Fobus's bill was subject to a referendum. He convinced the white citizens of Little Rock to keep the schools closed as his plan was to lease the public school buildings out to private schools to maintain segregation.

Starting point is 00:14:01 The NAACP and the federal government continued to fight with Little Rock and Fobus. The NAACP continued to bring additional legal cases to pressure for further integration, and the federal courts blocked Fobbis' plan to turn the schools into private institutions. As for the rest of the Little Rock Nine, two would return to Little Rock Central and later graduate. Another took correspondence courses and also got their diploma. The remaining students decided to transfer to other schools, but all of them eventually graduated. For their bravery, the members of the Little Rock Nine received accolades and awards, including the Congressional Gold Medal in 1999. As for Little Rock Central High School, the school is still part of the school district and is a

Starting point is 00:14:45 functioning high school. However, the location is now a national historic site and also houses a civil rights museum. The central lesson of the Little Rock Nine is that constitutional rights become meaningful only when people are willing to claim them and institutions are willing to enforce them. Nine teenagers force the country to decide. whether federal law would yield to intimidation. Their courage helped establish that a state governor, a hostile crowd, and a resistant school system could not legally determine which citizens were entitled to the protections of the Constitution.

Starting point is 00:15:23 The executive producer of Everything Everywhere Daily is Charles Daniel. The associate producers are Austin Otkin and Cameron Kiefer. Research and writing for this episode was provided by Olivia Ash. My big thanks go to everyone who supports a show over on Patreon. Your support helps make this podcast possible. And I also want to remind everyone about the community groups on Facebook and Discord. This is where everything happens that's outside of the show. As always, if you leave a review on any major podcast app or in the above community groups,

Starting point is 00:15:52 you two can have it read on the show.

Everything Everywhere Daily: History, Science, Geography & More - The Little Rock Nine

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