Little Rock- 1958 President Eisenhower's Address

Little Rock- 1958 President Eisenhower's Address

During the past several years, many communities in our southern states have instituted public school plans for gradual progress in the enrollment and attendance of school children of all races in order to bring themselves into compliance with the law of the land.
They thus demonstrated to the world that we are a nation in which laws, not men, are supreme.
I regret to say that this truth— the cornerstone of our liberties— was not observed in this instance....
Here is the sequence of events in the development of the Little Rock school case.
In May of 1955, the Little Rock School Board approved a moderate plan for the gradual desegregation of the public schools in that city. It provided that a start toward integration would be made at the present term in the high school, and that the plan would be in full operation by 1963.... Now this Little Rock plan was challenged in the courts by some who believed that the period of time as proposed in the plan was too long.
The United States Court at Little Rock which has supervisory responsibility under the law for the plan of desegregation in the public schools, dismissed the challenge, thus approving a gradual rather than an abrupt change from the existing system. The court found that the school board had acted in good faith in planning for a public school system free from racial discrimination.
Since that time, the court has on three separate occasions issued orders directing that the plan be carried out. All persons were instructed to refrain from interfering with the efforts of the school board to comply with the law.
Proper and sensible observance of the law then demanded the respectful obedience which the nation has a right to expect from all its people. This, unfortunately, has not been the case at Little Rock. Certain misguided persons, many of them imported into Little Rock by agitators, have insisted upon defying the law and have sought to bring it into disrepute. The orders of the court have thus been frustrated.

My Fellow Citizens.... I must speak to q)u about the serious situation that has risen in Little Rock.... In that city, under be leadership of demagogic extremists, disorderly mobs have deliberately prevented the arrying out of proper orders from a federal court. Local authorities have not eliminated
at violent opposition and, under the law,
yesterday issued a proclamation calling
pon the mob to disperse.
This morning the mob again gathered in
rant of the Central High School of Little Rock, obviously for the purpose of again
repenting the carrying out of the court's order relating to the admission of Negro forbidden to that school.
Whenever normal agencies prove inadequate to the task and it becomes necessary the executive branch of the federal government to use its powers and authority to uphold federal courts, the President's responsibility is inescapable.
In accordance with that responsibility, I ve today issued an Executive Order dictating the use of troops under federal authority to aid in the execution of federal law Little Rock, Arkansas. This became necessary when my Proclamation of yesterday was at observed, and the obstruction of justice ill continues.
It is important that the reasons for my tion be understood by all our citizens.
As you know, the Supreme Court of the
United States has decided that separate public educational facilities for the races are
The very basis of our individual rights and freedoms rests upon the certainty that the President and the Executive Branch of Government will support and insure the carrying out of the decisions of the federal courts, even, when necessary with all the means at the President's command....
Mob rule cannot be allowed to override the decisions of our courts.
Now, let me make it very clear that federal troops are not being used to relieve local and state authorities of their primary duty to preserve the peace and order of the community....
The proper use of the powers of the Executive Branch to enforce the orders of a federal court is limited to extraordinary and compelling circumstances. Manifestly, such an extreme situation has been created in Little Rock. This challenge must be met and with such measures as will preserve to the people as a whole their lawfully protected rights in a climate permitting their free and fair exercise.
The overwhelming majority of our people in every section of the country are united in their respect for observance of the law— even in those cases where they may disagree with that law....
A foundation of our American way of life is our national respect for law.
In the South, as elsewhere, citizens are keenly aware of the tremendous disservice that has been done to the people of Arkansas in the eyes of the nation, and that has been done to the nation in the eyes of the world.
At a time when we face grave situations abroad because of the hatred that communism bears toward a system of government based on human rights, it would be difficult to exaggerate the harm that is being done to the prestige and influence, and indeed to the safety, of our nation and the world.
Our enemies are gloating over this incident and using it everywhere to misrepresent our whole nation. We are portrayed as a violator of those standards of conduct which the peoples of the world united to proclaim in the Charter of the United Nations. There they affirmed "faith in fundamental human rights" and "in the dignity and worth of the human person" and they did so "without distinction as to race, sex, language or religion."
And so, with deep confidence, I call upon the citizens of the State of Arkansas to assist in bringing to an immediate end all interference with the law and its processes. If resistance to the federal court orders ceases at once, the further presence of federal troops will be unnecessary and the City of Little Rock will return to its normal habits of peace and order and a blot upon the fair name and high honor of our nation in the world will be removed.
Thus will be restored the image of America and of all its parts as one nation, indivisible with liberty and justice for all.