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Education Title IV of the Civil Rights Act of 1964prohibits discrimination in public schools because of race, color, religion, sex, or national origin. Public schools include elementary schools, secondary schools and public colleges and universities.
In 1954, the Supreme Court ruled in Brownv. Board of Educationthat segregation in the public schools was a violation of the Fourteenth Amendmentto the Constitution. But implementation of the Court's decision went slowly, with massive resistance from the states. In 1957, a federal court ordered the desegregation of public schools in Little Rock, Arkansas. The Governor of Arkansas, Orval Faubus, ordered the Arkansas National Guard to prevent the 9 black childrenwho were enrolled in Central High School from attending the school. Mobs of angry people greeted the students on the first day of school. These students were prevented from attending the school until President Eisenhower made the National Guard part of the federal army and also sent 1,000 paratroopers of the 101st Airborne Division of the US Army to protect these 9 children. In September 1958, Governor Faubus closed all the schools in Little Rock to prevent any more black children from attending white schools (see photo). The schools remained closed until August 1959, when the U.S. Supreme Court ordered them re-opened.
Little Rock
In an effort to voluntarily comply with the Supreme Court's Brown decision, the school board in Little Rock, Arkansas, began the process of desegregating that city's Central High School. As school opened in September of 1957, nine black students were scheduled to attend classes at the previously all-white high school. Before the African-American students could even enter the building, however, the governor of Arkansas, Orval Faubus, sent in the Arkansas National Guard to "maintain law and order" by keeping the black students out of school. By sending in the National Guard to prevent racial integration, Governor Faubus was directly challenging the authority of the U.S. Supreme Court. Indirectly, he was challenging the ability of the U.S. Government to enforce the orders of its highest court.
President Dwight D. Eisenhower responded immediately to this challenge to court-ordered school integration. Acting under his authority as Commander in Chief of all U.S. armed forces, he "federalized" the Arkansas National Guard, thus putting it under his control rather than Governor Faubus's control. The Arkansas National Guard was ordered out of Little Rock, and regular U.S. Army troops were sent in to occupy the area around Central High School and see that school integration proceeded in an orderly and peaceful manner.
These decisive actions at Little Rock by a U.S. president made a significant impact on public opinion throughout the nation. For the first time since the Civil War period, United States military forces had entered a southern city and state to enforce a national policy (racial integration) strongly opposed by a state government official (Governor Faubus).
For southern blacks, this national intervention was a critical development. Up until the time President Eisenhower acted so swiftly and decisively at Little Rock, there had been no guarantee that national government power would be used to uphold the Supreme Court's order on school integration. After Eisenhower's actions at Little Rock, however, "the precedent was set." From that point forward, blacks could always hope for United States Government intervention on behalf of their efforts to integrate public schools. Little Rock motivated black civil rights leaders in the South and their white supporters to work even harder to end racial segregation.
Little Rock's Central High School was integrated by military force for the 1957-1958 school year. The following year, however, Governor Faubus closed the schools rather than allow them to be desegregated. For a brief period, therefore, President Eisenhower's powerful intervention in the school integration crisis in Little Rock resulted in Little Rock public schools being closed. President Eisenhower's fear that going too rapidly with integration might result in closed public schools in the South had proven to be realistic, at least in the short run.
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