CRISIS IN LITTLE ROCK

This lesson is divided into four sections. The first section deals with the students who attended Central High School. The second and third sections cover background. The last section is about the crisis itself. photo by Chris Mott

 
 
 
 

I. The Students

A. The majority of events which took place in Little Rock Arkansas were written about from the point of view of the white students at Central High School in their student newspaper, The Tiger.

 

 

  1. How did the student newspaper staff suggest CHS students should behave during the integration crisis? 
  2. Whom did they claim was causing most of the trouble? 
  3. What was the opinion of the principal of CHS? Did it differ from that of the students? If so, how? 

Using the web There are two articles by students and one by the principal at the first site you will visit. To go to the site simply click on the blue underlined word. You may need to scroll down the page to find the answer to a question. After you have found and recorded your answer, click the back button on your web browser to return to the lesson. 

 

B. Melba Beals and Jefferson Thomas were two of the 'Little Rock Nine', the African American students who first integrated Central High. Their experience was very different from that of the white students attending Central High School.

Listen to a PBS story on the experiences of Melba Beals and Jefferson Thomas.

  1. How were they treated at school?
  2. One girl, Minniejean Brown, was harassed so much that she refused to accept any more abuse. What did she do? What happened to her? What would you have done?
  3. In retrospect, how did these former students reflect about their experiences?
  4. What would the Little Rock schools look like today if Melba Beals and Jefferson Thomas and other African American students had not attended Central High School?

 

II. Legal Segregation

After the Civil War, the Fourteenth Amendment guaranteed equal rights to all American citizens, including newly freed slaves. In 1896, the United States Supreme Court ruled in Plessy v. Ferguson that the races could legally be segregated so long as the separate facilities were equal. It would be more than fifty years before this precedent would be overturned.

  1. What did the Fourteenth Amendment say about the rights of all American citizens?
  2. In Plessy v. Ferguson, what rationale did the Supreme Court use to uphold the segregation of the races?
  3. One Supreme Court Justice in Plessy v. Ferguson disagreed with the majority. What arguments were stated in the minority opinion?

 

III. Changing Times

In 1954, with the ruling in Brown v. The Board of Education, the Supreme Court struck down the notion of "separate but equal" facilities in America, opening the door to equal access to public education for all people. This ruling did not, however, mean that change would happen overnight. There was a great deal of resistance to the idea of integrated schools. Some states and localities resorted to a tactic known as "Massive Resistance," shutting down their public schools rather than submit to integrating them. Little Rock did not move immediately to integrate, but made a plan to gradually integrate the school system.

Chief Justice Earl Warren wrote the majority opinion in the Brown case.

  1. What did he say about "separate but equal" facilities?
  2. According to Warren, what kind of effects did such a philosophy have on the people who were discriminated against?
  3. As we approach the 21st century, American schools remain segregated. If Chief Justice Warren were alive today, what would he think about segregated schools?

 

IV. Events in Little Rock

VIDEO: The Little Rock Nine on their first day at Central High School

A. The 1957-1958 school year saw the beginning of integration at Little Rock's Central High School . Thus began a slow process of compliance with the law. Twenty seven black students applied for admission to the high school, yet only nine were admitted. The NAACP sued the school board for refusing to admit all the students. Using the links in the questions below, read an account of events from the Central High School newspaper. See the timeline for a chronology of events in Little Rock, Arkansas.

 

  1. What was the result of the NAACP lawsuit? What reason did the judge give for his decision?
  2. How did the school board plan to integrate the city schools?
  3. What happened when the nine students attempted to go to school?
  4. What was Governor Orval Faubus' response to the students' attempt to enroll in school?
  5. Examine the timeline of events in the Civil Rights movement. How might events in the movement have unfolded differently if the Little Rock Nine had not attended Central High School?

 

B. On September 24, 1957 President Eisenhower spoke to the nation about how he was planning to respond with the situation in Little Rock.

  1. How did President Eisenhower respond to the situation? Do you think it was appropriate?
  2. What would you have done if you had been president?
  3. What was the primary Constitutional issue at stake? Where else in U.S. history has the same issue been in question?