History of the United States II / Unit 13 USH2 1860 worked example, 60 to 90 seconds
Little Rock
The idea
In nineteen fifty-seven nine African American students were to enter Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas, and Governor Orval Faubus ordered Arkansas's National Guard to block them. Eisenhower did not agree with the Brown decision and did not wish to force the southern states to integrate, the anchor says; Digital History adds that in nineteen fifty-four he had urged Chief Justice Warren not to antagonise the white South.
In practice
Soldiers of the 101st Airborne escorting the Little Rock Nine into and around the school.
Where people slip
On September twenty-third, nineteen fifty-seven, Eisenhower signed Executive Order one oh seven thirty, sending federal troops to Little Rock, the National Archives records. As president, the anchor says, he was responsible for enforcing the ruling whatever his view. The misreading makes him either a champion of Brown or its enemy; he was neither, and he sent the troops anyway.
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