What Happened After 1957

What happened after 1957?

The Aftermath of CentralHigh School

The turmoil surrounding the integration of CentralHigh School did not end with the close of school in 1957. The trauma of the 1958-1959 year had a wider and deeper impact upon Little Rock residents that the confrontation between state and federal government in 1957.

Over the summer, Governor OrvalE.Faubuscalled the legislature into special session. A number of bills were passed giving him power over the schools, including the power to shut them down to prevent racial integration, which is exactly what he did in September 1958. The public voted on the issue and in a 19,470 to 7,561 count, the people voted to close the four high schools in Little Rock creating what is often called the “Lost Year.” Schools reopened on August 12, 1959 (Schnedler, 1997).

The “crisis of Central High” broadened to include many in the community. Below are some brief descriptions of some of the stories.

The Teachers

There were four high schools. I was unable to locate anyone who had taught at the technical school. There were 92 teachers at Central, 43 at the newly opened HallHigh School and 34 teachers at HoraceMann, the black high school. Hall and HoraceMann were opened in 1955 and 1956 as a part of the overall desegregation plan Little Rock had in place prior to the events of 1957.

Early in the school year, teachers reported their “attendance” by calling the office of their respective school. On October 6, 1958, all secondary teachers were ordered to return to their buildings and continue to put in the same number of hours a day as though school was in session. Teachers were to prepare for classes as though they would happen the next day. For the first month or so, teachers continued to believe school would reopen at any time.

Teachers were called upon to substitute in the lower grades. The white teachers did not like that aspect of the year. It became a game to avoid getting contacted to substitute. The black teachers saw it as a part of their duty and did not resist.Based on my interviews, the black educators confessed they rather enjoyed it.

Some students took correspondence courses and came to school for assistance from the guidance counselor. Science teachers cleaned their labs. The librarians caught up on cataloguing. Teachers taught one another topics of interest, e.g., dancing, sewing, typing. There were book clubs and travel clubs. At HoraceMann, the principal planned numerous staff development opportunities.

As the year wore on, at Central, tensions were high. Those who were segregationists reported to local segregationists groups the names of teachers sympathetic to the cause. Some of those teachers were questioned by police. In May of 1959, 44 teachers were fired for supporting the Little Rock Nine and aiding in the integration efforts at Central High (Butler, in press; Gordy, 1996).

The Students

The students were left without a way to get an education, especially the black students. A few attended hastily opened white private schools in the city. Many were sent to live with relatives in other towns. Some, who had enough credits to graduate, went on to college. Some took the GED and went to college or work. Many of the black students had moved to Little Rock in order to attend HoraceMann, the best school for them in the state. They really had no other place to go.

The popularity of football in the South is nothing new, so it should be no surprise that the football schedule continued until so many of the students had left town that there were not enough guys left to play.

The Citizens

No other adult is more closely tied to the events in Little Rock than Daisy Bates. She was president of the Arkansas National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). She and her husband had their lives threatened, their home attacked and their business boycotted out of existence. The threats were constant and there was little protection, other than neighbors who stood guard.

Several ministers became involved in the fray – on both sides. Rev. DunbarOgden and Dr.DaleCowling were two that worked to help desegregate the schools. Rev. Ogden paid dearly. He was dismissed from his church and his son, David, enduring repeated ignominious assaults, committed suicide in 1960.

Sadly, there were ministers on the other side of the issue who preached against desegregation and helped organize much of the mischief that surrounded the school from 1957-1960. Those who taught at Central were often ostracized at church, bridge clubs, etc. (Campbell & Pettigrew, 1959).

The press was quite active on both sides of the argument. HarryAshmore, editor of the Arkansas Gazette, one a Pulitzer Prize for his writing, as did the newspaper. Due to threats on his family, he left Little Rock for California where he lived until his death.

Public Servants

Major politicians, such as J.WilliamFulbright, remained quiet. One Congressman who tried to do something was BrooksHayes. As a result he lost the seat he had held for sixteen years. He sought to mediate the situation in 1957 by bringing President Eisenhower and Governor Faubus together. It did not work, as history has shown.

Faubus served as governor over ten years. He was married three times. His son committed suicide in young adulthood. His last run for office was in 1986 when he lost to a youngster named BillClinton.Faubus died of cancer in 1994.

On September 7, 1959, three dynamite blasts shook the city. One demolished a city-owned station wagon parked in the driveway of Fire Chief GannNalley’s home. He had led the brigade who hosed down a mob gathered in front of Central a month earlier. The second exploded in the office of the mayor,WoodrowMann, who promptly moved his family to the west coast, far away from the city where he had grown up. The third detonated at the school administration building, harming no one.

The police chief, GeneSmith, in whom so many had come to depend as a voice of calm in the storm, murdered his wife and committed suicide. His actions were categorized as stress related. He had been labeled a Judas and a member of the Gestapo by the segregationist leaders. BillHadley, a well-known television personality who owned a public relations firm, encouraged residents to come to the support of school personnel and the Little Rock Nine, to "stand up and be counted." He lost his business and sold his home to a former governor. To survive, his family moved in with relatives in Massachusetts. With the help of friends, he got a job in Washington, DC. He only talked about the degree of his stress some thirty years later.

Hadley refused to talk about why he was leaving Little Rock. Mrs.Bates interviewed him in preparation for her book, and he told her about the stress and the deep depression into which he had plunged as he saw his career collapsing around him. He bought a gun to kill himself, but changed his mind. Just to make sure he did not use it, he gave it to GeneSmith. It was the gun used by Smith to kill himself and his wife (Bates, 1987).

The Ladies

The closing of the schools led to the formation of the Women’s Emergency Committee (WEC). In a year’s time they led the effort to recall the newly elected segregationist school board, reinstate the 44 dismissed teachers, honor those teachers, and reopen the Little Rock secondary schools.

These ladies were led by AdolphineTerry, a doyenne of Little Rock society. Member of one of the best known families in the state, she was a woman ahead of her time. She calledHarryAshmore, and asked to visit him at his office. She donned her hat, gloves, and determination and paraded into Ashmore’s office, wasting no time in speaking her mind. He confirmed that it looked as though the schools would be closed by the governor. Her response, loosely translated, was that the men had messed things up and it was time to call out the ladies.

That afternoon, she, and three of her friends, met around her dining room table to organize a group of ladies with the goal of reopening the schools. They established a phone tree to contact people and worked with established female organizations like the American Association of University Women and the League of Women Voters.

WEC was disbanded in 1963. Upon hearing of this, a local newspaper, the Pine Bluff Commercial Appeal offered an editorial which warned the leaders of the state. As recorded in SaraMurphy’s (1997) book, a portion of the article said,

The ladies now pass the seals of leadership back to their conventional custodians. These custodians ought to be on notice, however, that the committee could be put together again in an afternoon, and doubtless will be should the need arise. (p.285)

References

Bates, D. (1987). The long shadow of Little Rock. Fayetteville, AR: The University of

Arkansas Press.

Butler, J.D. (In press). The aftermath of Central High: Surviving1958-1959. In Sherry

Field & LynnBurlbaw (Eds.).Explorations in Curriculum History Research.

Greenwich,CT: Information Age Press

Campbell, E.Q. and Pettigrew,T.F., (1959). Christians in racial crisis: A study of Little

Rock's ministry.Washington, DC: Public Affairs Press.

Gordy, S.H. (1996). Teachers of the lost year: Little Rock school district. Unpublished

dissertation. Little Rock, AR: The University of Arkansas at Little Rock.

Murphy, S. (1997). Breaking the silence: Little Rock’s women’s emergency committee

to open our schools, 1958-1963. Fayetteville, AR: The University of Arkansas Press.

Schnedler, J. (October 4, 1997). What happened after Central High crisis? (Online),

November 14, 2004. Arkansas Democrat-Gazette.