US Army
Operation Arkansas: A Different Kind of Deployment Photo by Courtesy of the National Archives September 20, 2007 Soldiers from the 101st Airborne Division escort the Little Rock Nine students into the all-white Central High School in Little Rock
Editor’s Note: September 24, 2017 marked the sixtieth anniversary of the day then-President Dwight D. Eisenhower ordered Federal troops to Little Rock, Arkansas to assist in the integration of Central High School by a group of African American students. On Wednesday September 25, the “Little Rock Nine” entered the school accompanied by a unit of army paratroopers. As we look back at that historic event,we share this article from our December 1957 issue.
A Conversation at Little Rock
Seven students from Little Rock's Central High School were brought together for a panel discussion by Mrs. Jorunn Ricketts, a correspondent for Norwegian newspapers. The discussion was recorded in Little Rock by N.B.C. News and broadcast recently.
This was the cast of characters: White students: Three girls—Sammy Dean Parker, Kay Bacon, and Robin Woods; one boy—Joseph Fox. Negro students: One girl—Minnijean Brown; one boy—Ernest Green. A third Negro student, Melba Patillo, participated but did not appear in the transcript.
Excerpts from the transcript which follow represent a condensation prepared by the New York Times. The conversation begins with a discussion of what would happen if federal troops were withdrawn from the school.
SAMMY: Well I have heard talk around the school but I wouldn't say for sure that there would be any riots or anything of that sort. But in my opinion I'd think there would be.
KAY: I don't know what they would do but I know I don't approve of that.
MRS. RICKETTS: But do you approve of having the Negroes still going to school if the troops were pulled out?
KAY: No, I don't.
ROBIN: I wouldn't be opposed to it. I think that people ought to be limited by their ability only— not by the color of their skin.
JOE: I feel the same way that Robin does. I don’t mind them going to school with me. I mean—the Supreme Court made this decision and I feel since the Supreme Court is there to make decisions like that, you ought to abide by what they say and not have all this violence and stuff that we've been having. I think it is mostly—the violence that we had on Monday morning—it was mostly the parents and not the children in school.
MRS. RICKETTS: What have you against Negroes in your school, Kay?
KAY: I think that they've got schools to go to of their own . That's what most of us have against them.
ERNEST: Well, the reason I went over to Central was that I, being a citizen of the United States, have just as much right as the other person. So why can't I go to the school that's in my neighborhood— why should I have to go two or three miles every day—when there's a school in my district? It's not that I want to socialize—mix with other people—but it's just that I want to get an education just like everyone else.
MINNIJEAN: I wouldn't want to go to Central to socialize and mix in. It is really from an educational and economic standpoint. What have you been taught that makes you just hate us so much?
UNIDENTIFIED GIRL: I don't hate you.
MINNIJEAN: Dislike.
UNIDENTIFIED GIRL: I don't dislike you either. I mean, we have just stated a part—the fact, I think you have a lot better—a lot nicer school than we have—much more modern.
ROBIN: Well, Horace Mann [Negro school] is a beautiful school, I'll admit that. But I have heard they don't have the same opportunities inside, do they Ernest?
ERNEST: Let me make that clear. Horace Mann is a modern building. But then Horace Mann just doesn't have the courses that Central has.
What have you been taught that makes you just hate us so much?
MRS. RICKETTS: Do you think it is possible to start working this out on a more sensible basis than violent demonstration?
SAMMY: No, I don't because the South has always been against racial mixing and I think they will fight this thing to the end. We fight for our freedom—that's one thing. And we don't have any freedom any more.
ERNEST: Sammy, you said that you don't have freedom? You are guaranteed your freedom in the Bill of Rights and your Constitution. You have the freedom of speech—I noticed that has been exercised a whole lot in Little Rock. The freedom of petition, the freedom of religion and the other freedoms are guaranteed to you. As far as freedom, I think that if anybody should kick about freedoms, it should be us. Because I think we have been given a pretty bad side on this thing as far as freedoms. I mean, democracy is supposed to be our form of government and we are allowed freedoms.
SAMMY: Do you call those troops freedom? I don't. And I also do not call free when you are being escorted into the school every morning.
ERNEST: You say why did the troops come here? It is because our government—our state government—went against the federal law. Our country is set up so that we have forty-eight states and no one state has the ability to overrule our nation's government. I thought that was what our country was built around. I mean, that is why we fight. We fought in World War II together— the fellows that I know died in World War II, they died in the Korean War. I mean, why should my friends get out there and die for a cause called "democracy" when I can't exercise my rights—tell me that.
ROBIN: I agree with Ernest.
JOE: Well, Sammy, I don't know what freedom has been taken away from you because the truth there—I know as a senior myself—the troops haven't kept me from going to my classes or participating in any school activity. I mean, they're there just to keep order in case—I might use their term "hotheads"—get riled up. But I think as long as—if parents would just stay out of it and let the children of the school at Central High figure it out for themselves, I think it would be a whole lot better. I think the students are mature enough to figure it out for themselves. As far as I'm concerned, I'll lay the whole blame of this trouble in Governor Faubus's lap.
SAMMY: I think you are wrong.
JOE : Because if he—if on September the third—if he hadn't called out the troops, I think there might have been some disagreements between people and maybe a few little fights, but I don't think that we'd have near as much trouble as we have now since he called out the National Guard.
SAMMY: I think we knew before this ever started that some day we were going to have to integrate the schools. And I think that our Governor was trying to protect all of us when he called out the National Guard-—and he was trying to prepare us, I think.
ERNEST: Well, I have to disagree. I know a student that's over there with us, Elizabeth, and that young lady, she walked two blocks, I guess—as you all know — and the mob was behind her. Did the troops break up the mob?
ROBIN: And when Elizabeth had to walk down in front of the school I was there and I saw that. And may I say, I was very ashamed—I felt like crying—because she was so brave when she did that. And we just weren't behaving ourselves—just jeering her. I think if we had had any sort of decency, we wouldn't have acted that way. But I think if everybody would just obey the Golden Rule — do unto others as you would have others do unto you—might be the solution. How would you like to have to walk down the street with everybody yelling behind you like they yelled behind Elizabeth?
MRS. RICKETTS: What would you do if it was a fact that nine Negro students would go through this year at Central High?
SAMMY : Well, I think you all have a choice of which school to go to—and I think they ought to give us a choice too. I told you I did not approve violence.
MRS. RICKETTS: Sammy, why do these children not want to go to school with Negroes?
SAMMY : Well, I think it is mostly race mixing.
MRS. RICKETTS: Race mixing? What do you mean?
SAMMY: Well, marrying each other.
ROBIN : They are there for education—they're not going to inter-marry—they're not going to have dates.
MINNIJEAN : Hold your hand up. I 'm brown, you are white. What's the difference? We are all of the same thoughts. You're thinking about your boy—he's going to the Navy. I' m thinking about mine—he's in the Air Force. We think about the same thing.
SAMMY : I'll have to agree with you.
ERNEST: Well, getting back to this intermarriage and all that. I don't know [where] people get all that. Why do I want to go to school? To marry someone? I mean, school's not a marriage bureau I'm going there for an education. Really, if I'm going there to socialize, I don' t need to be going to school. I can stand out on the corner and socialize, as far as that.
MINNIJEAN : Kay, Joe and Robin — do you know anything about me or is it just that your mother has told you about Negroes?
MRS. RICKETTS: Have you ever really made an effort to try to find out what they're like?
KAY: Not until today.
SAMMY : Not until today.
MRS. RICKETTS: And what do you think about it after today?
KAY: Well, you know that my parents and a lot of the other students and their parents think that the Negroes aren't equal to us. But— I don't know. It seems like they are to me.
My parents and a lot of the other students and their parents think that the Negroes aren't equal to us. But— I don't know. It seems like they are to me.
SAMMY: These people are—we'll have to admit that.
ERNEST: I think, like we're doing today, discussing our different views if the people of Little Rock would get together I believe they would find out a different story—and try to discuss the thing instead of getting out in the street and kicking people around and calling names—and all that sort of thing. If people got together it would be smoothed over.
KAY: I think that if our friends had been getting in this discussion today, I think that maybe some of them—not all of them—in time, they would change their mind. But probably some of them would change their mind today.
SAMMY: I know now that it isn't as bad as I thought it was—after we got together and discussed it. I think that's what they ought to do in Central. They ought to have a panel discussion or something like that to let all of the kids know—not just a few but all of the kids.
KAY: Do you suppose we can get that word out ?
JOE: May I make a suggestion to the Student Council? We can go up there and talk [about it].
MRS. RICKETTS: Let's see. Is there anything, finally, we want to say that we have to say now?
KAY: [Sammy and I] We both came down here today with our mind set on it [that] we weren't going to change our mind that we were fully against integration. But I know now that we're going to change our mind.
MRS. RICKETTS: What do your parents say to that?
KAY: I think I'm going to have a long talk with my parents.