| | One of the first challenges to ''Brown v. Board of Education'' was when Democrat Gov. [[Orval Faubus]] ordered the Arkansas National Guard to prevent African-American students from enrolling at [[Little Rock]] Central High School. Central High was an all-white school. Faubus ordered the troops to "accomplish the mission of maintaining or restoring law and order and to preserve the peace, health, safety and security of the citizens." A force of 289 soldiers was assembled. The commander told nine black students, 6 girls and 3 boys ages 15-17 years old who were attempting to enter the school, to return home. The standoff continued for three weeks. Little Rock Democrat mayor Woodrow Wilson Mann appealed to President Eisenhower to help end the deadlock. Eisenhower sent the [[101st Airborne Division]] to federalized the entire 10,000-member Arkansas National Guard. The students were allowed to enroll. | | One of the first challenges to ''Brown v. Board of Education'' was when Democrat Gov. [[Orval Faubus]] ordered the Arkansas National Guard to prevent African-American students from enrolling at [[Little Rock]] Central High School. Central High was an all-white school. Faubus ordered the troops to "accomplish the mission of maintaining or restoring law and order and to preserve the peace, health, safety and security of the citizens." A force of 289 soldiers was assembled. The commander told nine black students, 6 girls and 3 boys ages 15-17 years old who were attempting to enter the school, to return home. The standoff continued for three weeks. Little Rock Democrat mayor Woodrow Wilson Mann appealed to President Eisenhower to help end the deadlock. Eisenhower sent the [[101st Airborne Division]] to federalized the entire 10,000-member Arkansas National Guard. The students were allowed to enroll. |
| − | Faubus was re-elected in 1958 with 82.5% of the vote over a Republican challenger. Faubus ordered the closure of four public high schools that year, preventing both black and white students from attending school while seeking a two and a half year delay on de-segregation until January 1961 in Federal Court when there would be a possibility of a Democratic president. Senate Majority Leader Lyndon Johnson told Sen. Richard Russell, {{quotebox|"These Negroes, they're getting pretty uppity these days and that's a problem for us since they've got something now they never had before, the political pull to back up their uppityness. Now we've got to do something about this, we've got to give them a little something, just enough to quiet them down, not enough to make a difference. For if we don't move at all, then their allies will line up against us and there'll be no way of stopping them, we'll lose the filibuster and there'll be no way of putting a brake on all sorts of wild legislation. It'll be Reconstruction all over again."<ref>Said to Senator Richard Russell, Jr. (D-GA) regarding the Civil Rights Act of 1957. As quoted in [http://books.google.com/books?id=HS9aAAAAYAAJ ''Lyndon Johnson and the American Dream''] (1977), by Doris Kearns Goodwin, New York: New American Library, p. 155.</ref>}} | + | Faubus was re-elected in 1958 with 82.5% of the vote over a Republican challenger. Faubus ordered the closure of four public high schools that year, preventing both black and white students from attending school while seeking a two and a half year delay on de-segregation until January 1961 in Federal Court when there would be a possibility of a Democratic president. Senate Majority Leader Lyndon Johnson told Sen. Richard Russell, {{quotebox|"These Negroes, they're getting pretty uppity these days and that's a problem for us since they've got something now they never had before, the political pull to back up their uppityness. Now we've got to do something about this, we've got to give them a little something, just enough to quiet them down, not enough to make a difference. For if we don't move at all, then their allies will line up against us and there'll be no way of stopping them, we'll lose the filibuster and there'll be no way of putting a brake on all sorts of wild legislation. It'll be Reconstruction all over again."<ref>Said to Senator Richard Russell, Jr. (D-GA) regarding the Civil Rights Act of 1957. As quoted in [http://books.google.com/books?id=HS9aAAAAYAAJ ''Lyndon Johnson and the American Dream''] (1977), by Doris Kearns Goodwin, New York: New American Library, p. 155.</ref>}} John Kennedy voted against the 1957 Civil Rights Act. |