A Matter of Justice by David A. Nichols

Author:David A. Nichols
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Published: 2007-08-16T16:00:00+00:00

The action by the Governor of Arkansas in withdrawing the detachment of Arkansas National Guard troops from the Little Rock high school is a necessary step in the right direction. I am confident that the citizens of the City of Little Rock and the State of Arkansas will welcome this opportunity to demonstrate that in their city and in their state proper orders of a United States Court will be executed promptly and without disorder.

But events were no longer moving “in the right direction.” Congressman Hays called Sherman Adams from Little Rock and relayed the fears of Mayor Woodrow Wilson Mann and Superintendent of Schools Virgil Blossom that the Little Rock police could not handle the mob they believed would appear at the school on Monday. Later that day, Hagerty released another statement by an increasingly worried president, his anxiety undoubtedly fueled by these reports from the usually reliable Hays. Faubus’s defiance of integration had finally mobilized the anti-integration mob he had predicted. Eisenhower pled with the citizens of Arkansas to “vigorously oppose any violence by extremists.” He challenged them to think about “the ordeal to which the nine Negro children who have been prevented from attending Central High School have been subjected.” The president expressed confidence that the citizens of Arkansas would allow the court order to “be executed promptly and without disorder.”56

But Eisenhower was not confident. By withdrawing the guard, Faubus had once again ignored Eisenhower’s proposal that the governor change the guard’s orders. Faubus had intended to use the troops solely to prevent integration. He had dismissed the soldiers, left the state, and, in effect, invited extremists to prove how right he was about needing troops to prevent violence.

That weekend, Eisenhower tried to salvage the ragged remnants of his alleged vacation. On Sunday evening, September 22—the ninety-fifth anniversary of Abraham Lincoln’s 1862 preliminary emancipation proclamation—the president of the United States cooked steaks out on the patio and played bridge.57

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