Early American Civil Rights: How did Black Americans gain Civil Rights 1954 - 1960?
Name: Raiyaan Rafiq 06/12/20
Section Three: What happened at Little Rock?
In this picture there are 9 Africans who went to a white school, so they were not segregated this happened because of a case called Board of education.
Little Rock Arkansas
The 1950s in the USA was a busy decade in terms of changes to the education system and laws. Many reforms were brought in including the end of segregated schools and the separate but equal schooling for blacks and whites.
May 17, 1954 Brown vs. Board of Education Case legally challenged the 1879 law which allowed elementary schools to be racially segregated. After the case the government called for all schools to be desegregated. 9 black students enrolled in Little Rock Central High School in 1957.
The day before nine black students were to be admitted to Central High School, the governor of Arkansas, Orville Faubus ordered 270 National Guards to help maintain law and order. He said that he believed that there would trouble between the white and the black students. In fact, he bought in the troops to keep the black students out of a ‘white’ school.
On the first day of school the students were advised by the school board not to show up. On the second day they arrived with the company of ministers, but were prevented from entering the building by the National Guard. In the town of Little Rock in Arkansas, a federal (national) law was being challenged by a state governor. On the 23rd September the students managed to sneak into their school by using the back entrance, thus avoiding the large crowd of white people outside the front doors. When the mob found out they were inside, they began attacking African Americans on the street and reporters.
The next day On September 24, the President and the United States Army went to Little Rock. The army allowed the nine students to successfully enter the school the next day.
Eight of the nine students stayed the whole academic year and one graduated to college. The nine were still subjected to a year of physical and verbal abuse (spitting on them, calling them names) by many of the white students.
This event was particularly significant as it showed the determination of the black students. All but one was willing to endure the prejudice and discrimination from the white students and police to get the education they wanted, as they stayed the whole academic year. The fact that one of the black students graduated to college was a step closer for the African Americans towards equality.
Source Questions:
1. Study Source A.
What can you learn from Source A about what happened at Little Rock in September 1957?
They glared at me with a mean look and I was very frightened and didn’t know what to do. I turned around the crowd came toward me. They moved closer and closer. The crowd began to follow me, calling me names. When I got to the front of the school, I went up to the guard. He didn’t move. When I tried to squeeze past him, he raised his bayonet. Somebody started shouting “Lynch her! Lynch her!”. I tried to see a friendly face in the mob – someone maybe who would help. I looked into the face of an old woman and it seemed a kindly face. But when I looked at her again, she spat at me.
From ‘The Long Shadow of Little Rock’, a book published in 1962. These are the words of Elizabeth Eckford, one of the nine black students to enrol at Littlerock High School in 1957.
A person who wants to prove racism would just need a bit of this extract. The behaviour towards the ill-fated African girl was inadequate and any normal person that has feeling would feel the same for this poor girl and the other 8. I thought the Army and other people whose jobs are to protect the city were not racist at least one of them would have to be but not the whole City or Country a quote to prove my point would be, “I went up to the guard. He didn’t move.”. and, another point I would like to make is that the ‘kind old women’ was so arrogant that when Elizabeth looked at her, she spat on Elizabeth as it says in the extract, “!”. I tried to see a friendly face in the mob – someone maybe who would help. I looked into the face of an old woman and it seemed a kindly face. But when I looked at her again, she spat at me.
2. Study Sources A, B and C. Does the evidence of Sources B and C support (agree with) Elizabeth Eckford’s account of events at Little Rock (Source A)? You may include differences in your answer.
SOURCE B: from an article in the New York Times, September 1957; it describes the reaction in Little Rock to the arrival of black students A man yelled: “Look, they’re going into our school. “The crowd now let out a roar of rage. “They’ve gone in,” a man shouted. “Oh God”, said a woman, “the Negroes are in school.” A group of six girls, dressed in skirts and sweaters, hair in pony-tails, started to shriek and wail. “The Negroes are in our school,” they howled hysterically. Hysteria swept from shrieking girls to members of the crowd. Women cried hysterically, tears running down their faces.
SOURCE C: a photograph of Elizabeth Eckford taken on her first day at Little Rock High School in September 1957
I think that all the sources are making the same point and the are al, treating the Africans in unscrupulous way and calling them bad words like N***a whereas source B only says that the white people are calling Africans N***a’s because in source A it says, “The crowd began calling me names.” This does not exactly show what names because calling names could be saying ‘fatty’, ‘skinny twig’ so the historian could misunderstand the point, so I personally think Source B is more reliable in its own way but it doesn’t fully give all the details because they all shout ‘lynch her’ so therefore it does agree but doesn’t give all the details.