South of Little Rock by George Rollie Adams

Author:George Rollie Adams
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: George Rollie Adams
Published: 2019-10-15T00:00:00+00:00

“500 US Troops Fly into Little Rock on Ike’s Orders.” “Southern Governors Prepare for Showdown on Rights.” The headlines seemed to explode across the top of the El Dorado Daily News on Wednesday morning. Having now signed up for home delivery, Becky read the paper over breakfast and decided immediately to use it in the day’s social studies lesson. The first two pages read almost like a textbook on federal versus states’ rights. One story described the arrival of the troops. Another quoted the president. Another quoted various southern governors. Most of them either condemned the president’s action or questioned the necessity of it, but by the time the troop planes stopped flying into Little Rock, there were more than one thousand soldiers in the city, with the federalized Arkansas National Guard available if needed.

By eight o’clock, Elizabeth Eckford and the other eight black Central High School students had gathered at Daisy Bates’s home just as they had two days earlier. This time, however, two jeeploads of heavily armed paratroopers escorted their station wagon to the front entrance of the school while military helicopters fluttered overhead. Angry segregationists lined the surrounding streets and shouted racial slurs but troops held them back with bayonets. A squad of twenty soldiers shepherded the nine students up Central’s front steps. Inside, paratroopers walked them to their various classes and stood guard outside the classroom doors. White students taunted the nine just like on Monday, but this time they made it through the entire school day. In the afternoon, members of the 101st Airborne took them safely back to Daisy Bates’s house.

Tomorrow they would try to do it all over again.

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