On this day in 1957, Republican President Dwight Eisenhower ordered federal troops to Little Rock, Arkansas to insure the safety of the “Little Rock Nine” at Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas.
Bottom Row, Left to Right: Thelma Mothershed, Minnijean Brown, Elizabeth Eckford, Gloria Ray Top Row, Left to Right: Jefferson Thomas, Melba Pattillo, Terrence Roberts, Carlotta Walls, Daisy Bates (NAACP President), Ernest Green- Wikipedia.
President Eisenhower placed the Governor’s soldiers under federal government control and ordered the 101st Airborne to Arkansas. Senators Lyndon Johnson and John Kennedy publicly criticized the President for enforcing a federal court order. Many Democrats actually compared the President’s act to the Soviet invasion of Hungary the year before.
Grand Old Partisan has more on this historic blow to Democrat racism.
