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Books by and about Daisy Bates
Long Shadow of Little Rock
(Daisy Bates,1998) /
Daisy Bates Civil Rights Crusader from Arkansas
(Grif Sockley, 2005)
The Power of One: Daisy Bates and the Little Rock Nine (Fradin,
2004) /
Young and Black in America
(Julius Lester,1972)
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The Little Rock Nine
Caused a 'Crack in Time'
By Glen Ford
For much of the
past month, African Americans commemorated the Little
Rock Nine's integration of Central High School,
September 25, 1957. For the most part, celebrations
highlighted the teenagers' courage in the face of
state-instigated mob violence, and the steadfastness of
their parents and NAACP organizers. This is an heroic
story, glorious on its face, and true. Yet the real
significance of the events of 50 years ago extends far
beyond issues of school desegregation—a
problematic legacy in light of what has since
transpired. Rather, the Little Rock Nine and their adult
mentors—without
knowing it, and some possibly still unaware of the full
impact of their actions—set
in motion a chain of events that would fundamentally
alter the political relationship between Blacks and the
white power structure in the United States.
Where it not for
the Little Rock Nine, the whirlwind advances of the
Sixties, resulting in the death of legal Jim Crow in
historical lightning speed, might have been a much
longer, drawn out battle. Their victory in a token
effort to integrate a high school in the capitol city of
Arkansas did not lead to a national continuum of
ever-expanding classroom desegregation—or
even to completion of an integrated high school
experience for all of the students,
themselves. Instead, the Little Rock Nine focused
national and world attention on the real nature of white
mob violence in the United States, for the first time
through the young medium of television. A segregationist
president was compelled against every political instinct
to bring the full powers of the federal government,
including military force, to bear on the side of Blacks
for the first time since the death of Reconstruction.
And the stage was set for an era in which the two
political parties would actively vie for the Black vote,
one of which would closely collaborate with Black
leadership in an attempt to reinvent America.
A Shock to the
Senses
The broad outlines
of the September, 1957,
chronology are well-known. A local school
board-sanctioned plan to trickle nine Blacks into the
2000-student body of Central High School prompted an
enraged Gov. Orval Faubus to deploy Arkansas National
Guardsmen to bar the schoolhouse door to the Black
students, on September 4. A federal judge ordered the
Guard removed, and that integration move forward under
local police protection, September 20. Meanwhile,
racists from throughout the region had worked themselves
into a frenzy. On September 23, a 1,000-strong mob
threatened to storm the school building, forcing police
to evacuate the Little Rock Nine. The city's mayor asks
Washington to send in federal troops to restore order. A
profoundly reluctant President
Dwight
Eisenhower takes the Arkansas
National Guard away from Governor Faubus, by
federalizing it, and on September 25 sends in 1,000
paratroopers to escort the nine Black students into
Central High, while a huge gathering of the white racist
citizenry behave like obscenity screaming savages for
all the world to see and hear.
A first-class civil
rights drama, to be sure—but
the fallout was history-bending. Never before had
Americans viewed from their living rooms the raw face of
white racist mob bloodlust. Although many had read about
lynchings, few knew that these macabre events were often
attended by thousands, with whole families assembling in
a picnic atmosphere. Besides, that was all in the past,
and most Americans—and
foreigners—had
imbibed a diet of Gone with the Wind and Cabin
in the Sky movie fictions of benign southern racial
relationships. The gruesome 1955 murder of Black
teenager Emmett Till, in
Mississippi, had received national and world attention,
as did the Montgomery, Alabama bus boycott, the same
year. However, the Till lynching was the work of furtive
night killers, and the boycott of Montgomery busses was
not accompanied by a mass white mob response. White
southern politicians regularly warned of an apocalypse
should Blacks continue to press for enforcement of the
1954 Brown school
desegregation decision, but thanks to the executive
and judicial branches' insistence on giving whites all
the time in the world to comply, Armageddon had not
occurred.
Suddenly, there it
was: the coiled white mob, including large numbers of
women and children, their faces contorted in hate,
spitting and blaspheming, grotesque and murderous
animals bent on tearing apart children. This was truly
the Ugly American, caught on video in his and her native
habitat. ("The niggers got in! They tricked us! The
niggers got in!" "Come on, let's go in the school and
drag them out!")
Six years before
television would record Birmingham's police dogs and
fire hoses—a
horror of state violence, rather than white mob
depredations—the
1957 Little Rock display of mass white southern
inhumanity changed the image of the United States,
irrevocably.
The
Segregationist Savior
A rapidly
decolonizing world was watching, the Soviets were
pointing and chuckling, and the former
general-of-all-generals in the White House had been
waylaid by a new history in the making, one that he
could not avoid.
Dwight Eisenhower
is called "a man of his times" by his apologists -
meaning, he was a segregationist. As Supreme Commander
in World War Two Eisenhower opposed integration of the
Armed Forces, on the grounds that it would damage white
troop morale and "harm the Negro" by forcing him to
compete with whites—arguments
near-identical to those put forward by polite
segregationists in civilian life. Ike
put it this way:
|
In
general, the Negro is less well educated . .
. and if you make a complete amalgamation,
what you are going to have is in every
company the Negro is going to be relegated
to the minor jobs, and he is never going to
get his promotion to such grades as
technical sergeant, master sergeant, and so
on, because the competition is too tough.
If, on the other hand, he is in smaller
units of his own, he can go up to that rate,
and I believe he is entitled to the chance
to show his own wares. . . .
I
believe that the human race may finally grow
up to the point where it [race relations]
will not be a problem. It [the race problem]
will disappear through education, through
mutual respect, and so on. But I do believe
that if we attempt merely by passing a lot
of laws to force someone to like someone
else, we are just going to get into trouble.
On the other hand, I do not by any means
hold out for this extreme segregation as I
said when I first joined the Army 38 years
ago |
Eisenhower got help
in his victorious bid for the presidency, in 1952, from
Harlem Congressman Adam Clayton Powell, who was sick and
tired of the Dixie Democrats that dominated the Party at
the congressional level. Possibly due to Powell's
influence, Eisenhower stated, in a March, 1953 press
conference:
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I will say this—I
repeat it, I have said it again and again:
whenever Federal funds are expended for
anything, I do not see how any American can
justify—legally,
or logically, or morally—a
discrimination in the expenditure of those
funds as among our citizens. All are taxed
to provide these funds. If there is any
benefit to be derived from them, I think
they must all share, regardless of such
inconsequential factors as race and
religion. |
Note, however, that
this bland statement says nothing about federal
intervention to enforce his personal opinion, and is
totally compatible with the "separate but equal"
doctrine. As Morris J. MacGregor Jr. wrote in his
authoritative
Integration of the Armed Forces, 1940-1965,
Eisenhower contended "it was not in the scope of the
President's authority "to intervene in matters which are
of local or state-wide concern and within the
jurisdiction of local legislation and determination."
In other words, Ike
believed in "state's rights," just like the Dixiecrats.
The tenacity of the
Little Rock Nine, their parents, and the NAACP forced
Eisenhower's hand. More accurately, the whites that
Eisenhower had always feared upsetting compelled him to
react, in the name of law and order, the powers of the
presidency, and the global image of the United States.
He sent in the troops, and nothing would ever be the
same again.
Democrats Slow
to Catch Up
The racist rantings
of Dixiecrats, who had bolted the Democratic Party in
1948 in reaction to mild integrationist language in the
Party platform, plus Adam Clayton Powell's sympathy for
Eisenhower's presidency, garnered Ike 39 percent of the
Black vote in 1956—higher
than any Republican presidential candidate since
Franklin Roosevelt sewed up the Black vote in 1936. The
Democrats were busy trying to patch up relations with
their Dixiecrat brethren, in the early and mid-Fifties,
further alienating Black voters.
Eisenhower's
decisive action in 1957 Little Rock made him a hero in
Black America. Not in most people's living memory had
federal troops been deployed on the "right" side of the
race divide—but
Ike did it. If he could build for Republicans on his
1956 Black 39 percent share, the Democrats would be in
crisis in 1960. Little Rock created a huge bump in Ike's
Black popularity, but the Democrats were slow to
understand the implications.
Senate Majority
Leader Lyndon Johnson (TX)
declared, "There should be no troops from either
side patrolling our school campuses anywhere."
Adlai Stevenson,
the 1952 and 1956 losing Democratic presidential
candidate, speaking at the beginning of the Little Rock
crisis, but before Eisenhower sent in the troops, said,
"I don't suppose the president has much that he can do"—that
is, Stevenson could not contemplate enforcing the law
with federal forces.
John Kennedy, a
clear candidate for the next election cycle, said that
"though there may be disagreement over the president's
leadership on this issue, there is no denying that he
alone had the ultimate responsibility for deciding what
steps are necessary to see that the law is faithfully
executed"—faint
praise, indeed.
As the next
election drew nearer—and
as polls showed Eisenhower's soaring approval ratings
among African Americans—it
finally dawned on Democrats that Vice-President Richard
Nixon might inherit Ike's Black support. Late in the
game, in the midst of the 1960 campaign, Kennedy trumped
the Republicans with a call to Coretta Scott King,
expressing sympathy for her husband's having been
imprisoned in Reidsville, Georgia. Brother Bobby was
dispatched to urge Georgia authorities to release Dr.
Martin Luther King, Jr. on bail. "I'm sure that the
senator did it because of his real concern and his
humanitarian bent," said King—and
a new white political hero was born.
All three of the
Nixon-Kennedy televised debates dealt with questions of
civil rights, as they jockeyed for Black support. The
process of disentanglement from the Dixiecrats had begun—an
unlikely occurrence had Eisenhower not been forced to
become a reluctant Black savior by the sheer courage of
the Little Rock Nine, thus endangering the Democrats'
lock on Black voters.
Nixon lost the
election by a hair. "If the Negro voters of America
hadn't shifted last Tuesday to John Kennedy,
Vice-President Nixon would now be holding press
conferences as President-elect," said The New
Republic. "Kennedy's victory with the Negroes was
nothing short of triumphant," wrote Time
magazine. Eisenhower blamed Nixon's defeat on his
failure to attract enough Black votes.
The Legacy
The
Black-Democratic love affair was rekindled, but at a
price for white Democrats. Because of Eisenhower's
actions in Little Rock, and Kennedy's efforts to one-up
him by embracing Dr. King (no matter how cynically),
African Americans grew to realize their centrality in
national elections, as did their white suitors. For
Kennedy, and later Johnson, there was no going back; the
Dixiecrat ties were doomed.
Soon the "Big Four"
of civil rights—the
Southern Christian Leadership Council's Martin Luther
King Jr., Roy Wilkins of the NAACP, Whitney Young of the
Urban League, and James Farmer of the Congress of Racial
Equality—and
other Black luminaries would feel confident in demanding
meetings at the White House, a venue every previous
generation of African Americans were made to feel
privileged and lucky to set foot in. They arrived with
agendas, rather than an "I'm so glad to be here"
attitude. They competed with each other to present
coherent programs that would finally be considered as
potential public policy. They, and the movements they
represented, shaped a Second Reconstruction, albeit
brief and inadequate.
If the Little Rock
Nine had faltered, history would have unfolded quite
differently. Their greatest legacy is having boxed in a
segregationist president, forcing him to do the right
thing, and provoked, by their heroism, white mobs to
show their asses to the candid cameras of television,
thus teaching the planet the real character of U.S.
white society in 1957, a spectacle that previously
indifferent whites would seek to live down for many
years. From that moment on, the Black American world
changed.
This article is
based on a speech by Ford to the 62nd Annual Convention
of the Arkansas State Conference of the NAACP, in Little
Rock.
Glen Ford can be contacted at
Glen.Ford@BlackAgendaReport.com
Source:
Black Agenda Report
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Charles Mingus:
Fable of Faubus
"Fables of Faubus" is a song
composed by jazz bassist and composer Charles Mingus. One of Mingus'
most explicitly political works, the song was written as a direct
protest against Arkansas governor
Orval E. Faubus, who in 1957 sent out the National Guard to prevent
the integration of Little Rock Central High School by
nine African American teenagers. The song was first recorded for
Mingus' 1959 album,
Mingus Ah Um. Columbia refused to allow the lyrics to the song to be
included, and so the song was recorded as an instrumental on the album.
It was not until October 20, 1960 that the song was recorded with
lyrics, for the album
Charles Mingus Presents Charles Mingus, which was released on the
more independent
Candid label. Due to contractual issues with Columbia, the song
could not be released as "Fables of Faubus", and so the Candid version
was titled "Original Faubus Fables."
 |
The personnel for the
Candid recording were Charles Mingus (bass, vocals),
Dannie Richmond (drums, vocals),
Eric Dolphy (alto saxophone), and
Ted Curson (trumpet). The vocals featured a
call-and-response between Mingus and Richmond. Critic
Don Heckman commented on the unedited "Original Faubus
Fables" in a 1962 review that it was "a classic Negro
put-down in which satire becomes a deadly rapier-thrust.
Faubus emerges in a glare of ridicule as a mock villain whom
no-one really takes seriously. This kind of commentary,
brimful of feeling, bitingly direct and harshly satiric,
appears far too rarely in jazz." The song, either with or
without lyrics, was one of the compositions which Mingus
returned to most often, both on record and in concert.—Wikipedia
photo left:
As fifteen-year-old
Elizabeth Eckford tried to enter the school, soldiers of
the National Guard, under orders from Arkansas Governor
Faubus, would step in her way to prevent her from entering. |
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Fable of Faubus
By Charles Mingus
Oh, Lord, don't let 'em shoot us!
Oh, Lord, don't let 'em stab us!
Oh, Lord, don't let 'em tar and feather us!
Oh, Lord, no more swastikas!
Oh, Lord, no more Ku Klux Klan!
Name me someone who's ridiculous,
Dannie.
Governor Faubus!
Why is he so sick and ridiculous?
He won't permit integrated schools.
Then he's a fool! Boo! Nazi Fascist
supremists!
Boo! Ku Klux Klan (with your Jim Crow plan)
Name me a handful that's ridiculous,
Dannie Richmond.
Faubus, Rockefeller, Eisenhower
Why are they so sick and ridiculous?
Two, four, six, eight:
They brainwash and teach you hate.
H-E-L-L-O, Hello.
Orval E. Faubus was the governor of Arkansas in 1957 and
against desegregation. He sent the National Guard to prevent
black children from attending high school in Little Rock. |
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John
Coltrane, "Alabama" /
Kalamu ya Salaam, "Alabama"
/
A Love Supreme
A Blues for the Birmingham Four
/ Eulogy for the Young Victims
/ Six Dead After Church
Bombing
Audio:
My Story, My Song (Featuring blues guitarist Walter Wolfman Washington)
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1493: Uncovering the New World Columbus
Created
By Charles C. Mann
I’m
a big fan of Charles Mann’s previous
book
1491:
New Revelations of the Americas Before
Columbus, in which he
provides a sweeping and provocative
examination of North and South America
prior to the arrival of Christopher
Columbus. It’s exhaustively researched
but so wonderfully written that it’s
anything but exhausting to read. With
his follow-up,
1493, Mann has taken it to a
new, truly global level. Building on the
groundbreaking work of Alfred Crosby
(author of
The Columbian Exchange and, I’m
proud to say, a fellow Nantucketer),
Mann has written nothing less than the
story of our world: how a planet of what
were once several autonomous continents
is quickly becoming a single,
“globalized” entity.
Mann not only talked to countless
scientists and researchers; he visited
the places he writes about, and as a
consequence, the book has a marvelously
wide-ranging yet personal feel as we
follow Mann from one far-flung corner of
the world to the next. And always, the
prose is masterful. In telling the
improbable story of how Spanish and
Chinese cultures collided in the
Philippines in the sixteenth century, he
takes us to the island of Mindoro whose
“southern coast consists of a number of
small bays, one next to another like
tooth marks in an apple.” We learn how
the spread of malaria, the potato,
tobacco, guano, rubber plants, and sugar
cane have disrupted and convulsed the
planet and will continue to do so until
we are finally living on one integrated
or at least close-to-integrated Earth.
Whether or not the human instigators of
all this remarkable change will survive
the process they helped to initiate more
than five hundred years ago remains,
Mann suggests in this monumental and
revelatory book, an open question. |
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Greenback Planet: How the Dollar Conquered
the World and Threatened Civilization as We Know It
By H. W. Brands
In Greenback Planet, acclaimed historian H. W. Brands charts the dollar's astonishing rise to become the world's principal currency. Telling the story with the verve of a novelist, he recounts key episodes in U.S. monetary history, from the Civil War debate over fiat money (greenbacks) to the recent worldwide financial crisis. Brands explores the dollar's changing relations to gold and silver and to other currencies and cogently explains how America's economic might made the dollar the fundamental standard of value in world finance. He vividly describes the 1869 Black Friday attempt to corner the gold market, banker J. P. Morgan's bailout of the U.S. treasury, the creation of the Federal Reserve, and President Franklin Roosevelt's handling of the bank panic of 1933. Brands shows how lessons learned (and not learned) in the Great Depression have influenced subsequent U.S. monetary policy, and how the dollar's dominance helped transform economies in countries ranging from Germany and Japan after World War II to Russia and China today. He concludes with a sobering dissection of the 2008 world financial debacle, which exposed the power--and the enormous risks--of the dollar's worldwide reign. The Economy |
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Sex at the Margins
Migration, Labour Markets and the Rescue Industry
By Laura María Agustín
This book explodes several myths: that selling sex is completely different from any other kind of work, that migrants who sell sex are passive victims and that the multitude of people out to save them are without self-interest. Laura Agustín makes a passionate case against these stereotypes, arguing that the label 'trafficked' does not accurately describe migrants' lives and that the 'rescue industry' serves to disempower them. Based on extensive research amongst both migrants who sell sex and social helpers, Sex at the Margins provides a radically different analysis. Frequently, says Agustin, migrants make rational choices to travel and work in the sex industry, and although they are treated like a marginalised group they form part of the dynamic global economy. Both powerful and controversial, this book is essential reading for all those who want to understand the increasingly important relationship between sex markets, migration and the desire for social justice. "Sex at the Margins rips apart distinctions between migrants, service work and sexual labour and reveals the utter complexity of the contemporary sex industry. This book is set to be a trailblazer in the study of sexuality."—Lisa Adkins, University of London |
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The White Masters of the
World
From
The World and Africa, 1965
By W. E. B. Du Bois
W. E. B. Du Bois’
Arraignment and Indictment of White Civilization
(Fletcher)
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Ancient African Nations
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Negro Digest /
Black World
Browse all issues
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Enjoy!
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The Death of Emmett Till by Bob Dylan
/
The Lonesome Death of Hattie Carroll
/
Only a Pawn in Their Game
Rev. Jesse Lee Peterson Thanks America for
Slavery /
George Jackson /
Hurricane Carter
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The Journal of Negro History issues at Project Gutenberg
The
Haitian Declaration of Independence 1804
/
January 1, 1804 -- The Founding of
Haiti
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posted 3 October 2007
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