Transcripts For CSPAN3 Little Rock Arkansas Before 1957 20171015

To our mayor, the city manager, bruce moore, the city board of directors of little rock, to skip rutherford, to the 60th anniversary committee, and for most of all, the little rock nine and their families. We welcome you to the 60th Educational Forum for the city of little rock and the state of arkansas. We thank you for being here and we hope something is said or done that will give you a better understanding when you leave here today and let me digress for a minute, and say that the naacp was the organization that worked and spearheaded the little rock 9. A terrible time in our history. I remind you this was way before the march on washington. Its way before in 1964 civil the 1964 civil rights act. It is way before the 1965 Voting Rights act. People wanted to do to get an education. That is all they were trying to do. But our system at that time said , you will not be able to go to school based upon a decision by the United States Supreme Court. Marshall, whoood went on to become a supreme and one of the lawyers for the naacp, along with the parents of the little rock nine went through some of the terrible times recorded in the history of america. The court has said they were entitled to go to school. Yes, this government system in arkansas said no, you will not go to school at central high school. People whose young set out to get an education that is all they wanted to do, to get an education, and were denied that opportunity, and paid a tremendous debt that all of us in this room are enjoying today, and we owe them a great, great gratitude for their contribution for what they went through to make it possible for us to be in this room today. We need to give them some applause. [applause] now, i will not prolong the time. I have the task of introducing our speaker. Our speaker is no stranger. His dad was one of the lawyers , along with Thurgood Marshall, who worked with the naacp to make it possible. Is the sitting judge not the retired judge, but the sitting judge for the state of arkansas, city of little rock. He is one of three juvenile day, took onay to the task of being a surrogate for young people who have lost their way, and are sitting in the courtroom to offer up many, problemstions to the that the young people face today. And that is none other then judge wiley grant, junior. He has an education degree, he has to have it to be a judge, but we need to talk about the young people who have come before him in his court, and he has made a conscious decision to give them the right leadership so they can be productive citizens. Wiley branton junior has served ,s a sitting judge since 1993 for the current time, on a the samey task, doing thing for young people today was the little rock nine doing when they were trying to get an education, to redirect young people and get them on the right course. For that, we should be grateful to judge Wiley Branton junior. We run a tight schedule, so i will move out of the way and let to give us and begin our Opening Statements and our purpose. Judge Wiley Branton junior. Thank you. [applause] thank you, mr. Charles. It is my privilege today to participate in this 60th anniversary, celebrating and or commemorating, and or commiserating about the events surrounding the integration of Little Rock High School in 1957. Things such as the current of the little rock nine and that of their families is something that is worthy of celebration and praise. Thegs such as governors defiance of the rights of the negro students under the United States constitution. s defiance of federal court orders, and the racial hatred and mob violence directed at the nine and others are things that need to be called out for the acts of cowardice, which they were, and duly remembered for posterity, unless we are going down that road again, and im afraid we are starting to creep down that road again, but maybe more on that before i finish. The theme of the 60th anniversary is reflections of progress, and fairly recent events certainly give us a lot to reflect upon at this time and the issue of progress is up for mixed reviews. When the blockbuster decision of brown verses board of education was issued in may 1957, a decision which ordered the end of statesponsored segregated schools, the Supreme Court had this to say about the importance of an education listen to this, reflect on this. Today, education is perhaps the most important function of state and local governments. Compulsory School Attendance laws and the great expenditures for education both demonstrate our recognition of the importance of education to our democratic society. It is required in the performance of our most basic public responsibilities, even service in the armed forces. It it is the very foundation of good citizenship. Today, it is a principal instrument and awakening the child to Cultural Values and preparing him for later professional training and in helping him to adjust normally to his environment. In these days, it is doubtful that any child may reasonably expected to succeed in life if he is denied or i will say she the opportunity of an education. Such an opportunity where the state has undertaken to provide it is a right that must be made available to all on equal terms. And i would submit to you today that those words have as much terms. Equal terms. And i would submit to you today that those words have as much vitality today, perhaps even more than when they were uttered in brown went on to talk 1954. About how segregated schools were harmful to black children and again, let me read briefly from brown. To separate them from others of similar age and qualifications, solely because of their rage generates a feeling of inferiority as to their status in the community that may affect their hearts and minds in a way unlikely to be undone. [applause] the impact is greater when it has the sanction of law. For the policy of separating the races was usually interpreted as denoting this is not supposed to be happening this is not supposed to be happening. It denotes the inferior of the negro group. Inferiority affects the motivation of a child to learn. Segregation with the sanction of law, therefore, has a tendency to retard the educational and Mental Development of negro them , and to deprive i dont understand this. And to deprive them of some of the benefits they would have received in a racially integrated school system. Im glad im done with that part. At the time of brown, Thurgood Marshall had established himself i cannot see anymore. [laughter] at the time of brown, circuit marshall had established himself the chief legal strategist surrogate marshall had established himself as the chief legal strategist for the naacp Legal Defense fund, and he believed that the only way to end racism in america was to have an integrated america where , people would just see each other as their fellow human as their fellow human being as opposed to just some other person. He also wanted black people to have equal Educational Opportunities, and both of those objectives could only be omplished if come from a if, from the early stages, children went to school with each other, sat next to each other, played with each other, and had meaningful interaction on a truly integrated basis. In the aftermath of the brown decision, a group of black all caps off arkansas s, which included daisy bates, reverend bates and my father, wylie branten sr, that Wiley Branton senior then a , young lawyer in pine bluff decided to press the issue of integration in little rock but Little Rock School district had had come up with the plan of gradual integration. But the arkansas naacp, including the Little Rock Branch , thought the School Districts plan did not go far or fast enough. It was deliberate speed, as in slow speed. Not liking the School District plan the arkansas naacp had my , father to file a lawsuit on behalf of the neego plaintiffs seeking the immediate and full integration of the little rock district. Lawsuit eventually became known as cooper versus aaron. It ended up in the United States Supreme Court in 1958. After the lawsuit was filed in january 1956, my father did enlist the support of other lawyers associated with the naacp. To the critical and historical events in 1957, the case went to trial, and the federal judge decided that the little rock plan was an acceptable plan. He black plaintiffs were disappointed with the judges ruling, but the court did two things to pave the way for events to unfold in little rock the way they did in 1957. First of all, the court adopted the little rock plan and made it the order of the court. Therefore, if anyone sought to interfere with the little rock plan going forward, that person or persons would be violating an existing court order and second, the federal court retained jurisdiction of the case, now a court order, the plaintiffs could seek immediate relief in Court Without having to start all over from scratch if there were problems with implementation. And then came to the nine, walking onto the world stage. Miss mini jean brown tricky, mr. Earnest green, ms. Thelma mothershed wear, ms. Melba beales, ms. Carleta walls beer and jefferson thomas, who passed away in 2010. When the governor tried to call about National Guard to block the admission of the little rock nine to the central Rock High School he was immediately in , violation of a federal court order. Because of the earlier lawsuit filed by my father, they were able to go right back to court and seek enforcement the Enforcement Authority of the federal government. It was the erecting crisis in the fall that got erupting crisis in the fall that got mr. Marshal more directly involved in the case. And although president eisenhower made private statements that he disagreed with brown, he never publicly vilified the courts. He understood his role as president and how our system of government works. Ultimately, he made the decision to call out the federal troops to enforce the authority of the federal court and to enforce the Constitutional Rights of the nine to attend little rock central. There were many significant things about what the little rock nine did to contribute to the advancement of civil rights in america and the world. Because of their extraordinary courage, which was caught on photographs and moving film, the actions of the angry crowd for the little rock nine, toward the children, shamed america before the world. Statesnately, the united had to be shamed by many more acts of violence before the passage of significant civil rights legislation in the mid1960s on the administration of Lyndon Baines johnson. These attempted to address Voting Rights, fair housing, public accommodations, and equal employment opportunities. In fact, we have seen substantial progress in all of these areas for many minority groups. The little rock nine and their daisy and elsie bates, lawyers wylie branlten Wiley Branton senior and Thurgood Marshall, and others on the team and the community who supported, protected and encouraged them, all of them played an Important Role in our struggle for civil human rights. But all is not well. We reflect on this question and take little rock as an example. But this is an example that exists in other places as well. The Little Rock School district is overwhelmingly populated by black students in a city where we have a majority white population. If brown tells us that segregation horns negro students in 1957, are our students now 7 by a recentin 201 related school system, which has been caused in some measure by white flight, which began with brown, and governmental policy . Just something to think about. If the trend towards charter choice harmingmo the Educational Opportunities of children who are left in regular schools . Something to think about. sd what is up with the state take over the Little Rock School district and the disenfranchisement of students to pick the superintendent of their choice . These are troubling issues. And what about racism . Whether it be the upfront, in your face racism, or perhaps the more insidious form of racism, known as implicit or unconscious bias. Lasttil the president ial election, the over racism had more or less gone into the closet and was expressed by only a fringe element. With recent events and statements of the highest of the high political leaders, over racism has gained new respectability. Implicit or unconscious bias has never gone away. Sure, barack obama was elected president for two terms of the United States, which was something i had never expected to see in my lifetime. While there are many reasons why the last president ial election turned out the way it did, and many of those reasons are still ,eing uncovered and deciphered i submit that one of the factors that played into our most recent election was a racially motivated, either by overt or implicit bias, backlash against president obama. [applause] are another major crossroads in our history with issues that challenge the very core of our democracy and freedom. Remember theo grace, courage, and determination displayed by the little rock nine when they faced the Political Forces of the inte and the angry mob, back 1957. There is much work that remains to be done in our ongoing quest for equal justice under the law. Thank you. [applause] ms. Kerny wild and why dont i give you a couple of seconds to reflect on those words . What a beautiful, beautiful presentation this morning, and i think we all kind of share those feelings that our judge expressed so well. Thank you. My name is janis f. Kerny and im not as tall as you are. My name is janis f. Kerny and i will be the moderator for this mornings first panel and i would like to first of all thank the city of little rock and specifically bruce moore. Who i had never worked with up close until i became a part of the committee, and i think dale charles for that. I am so impressed with his abilityip style and his to pull things together in spite of so many different personalities that he had to work with. I think the most important clue to that whole thing was knowing that we were celebrating the little rock nine. He had the whole city behind him in that. I give him so much credit for ability to do that. We have some amazing panelists this morning, who will be talking about where we were before 1957. Most of them do not need any introductions i will give you a very brief introduction on those two that have not spoken this morning. But let me open up and say that our panel is based on the fact that nothing in our world happens in a vacuum. Arkansas, america, the world didnt suddenly wake up in september 1957 and find an imperfect world. It was there already. There was injustice, there was inhumanity, uncivil rights, unnecessary poverty, discrimination, inequities and in everything from schools to hospitals to government jobs. All of this happened before september 1957. Before those nine brave children went into central high school. So i do think that its important for those of us who know from common logic that every action is based on another action or inaction that we have to tell the whole truth. As the judgments and. We have a responsibility to, and i think judge mentioned. We have a responsibility to, and i think that will be a good start. So thats what well spend the next 45 minutes discussing. And and im going to start out with just one question, for ms. Trio ia a greenwashington treop greenwashington. Bigis not just mr. Greens sister. She has a long resume of important work that she has done in education and history, and i think those are two extremely important areas for us to be involved in. So im going to open it up to treopia and aske to ask her to talk about what you think was the most port and precursor to the 1957 crisis . A you had a crystal ball week, a month, a year before the children, the nine children went into central high, what would you have seen to make you know that little rock was headed to this the 1957 that we call crisis at central high . Ms. Greenwashington thank you. Its such a pleasure to be home again and to participate in this really, really important event. Im going to go back a few decades. In the 1940s, my our mother and im the sister of earnest our mother and our aunt were both teachers at dunbar high school, that was the colored high school and my alma mater. They were a part of the group of teachers who, in the 1940s, filed a lawsuit against the Little Rock School board for equal pay for black teachers. At that time, black teachers were paid far less than white teachers with the same credentials. Lawsuit, thethat naacp i must mention, my brother reminded me this morning that our mother was a lifelong member of the naacp and at that time, dutifully paid the five dollars a year membership. The naacp supported the Little Rock School teachers in their lawsuit by sending their legal counsel, Thurgood Marshall, to represent the teachers. Well, my part of that, i was about four years old. And i remember the conversations that my mother and i had about this lawsuit. At one of thurgood marshals visits, our family was asked to host him. Why . Because none of the hotels by law would accommodate colored guests. Well, again i mentioned i was four, and at four, you know a Little Something but not a lot. I remember in the conversation, my mother said that are good marshall would fly into little rock. During that time, people traveled by train for the most part, and air travel they were propeller planes. Jet planes had not been invented yet. And i recall standing on my stepstool at our back window waiting for the plane to land in our backyard. Well, when the doorbell rang and my mother announced that attorney marshall was here, i was absolutely appalled that he would deny me the opportunity to see his plane land. In fact, i told his son years later that i do not think i ever forgave your father for disappointing me. But that lawsuit was won by the Little Rock School teachers, and that group of teachers collected enough money that year to pay the salary of the plaintiff sue , cowen williams, for whom the library is named here in little rock. That was something that i will never forget. The film hast night also last night also reminded me of Something Else. Those of you who thought recall it ended with the actor who played Thurgood Marshall at the white water fountain. When i was growing up, they had a Department Store on sixth and main that had two water fountains in the basement. One marked colored and the other marked white, and i was learning to read and i asked my mother which one i should drink from , and she said whichever one you wish. I often thought of what someone in the last administration said. Oh when they go low, you go high. And thats exactly what was practiced in my growing up. One one other vignette that occurred to me i think this is because i am staying at the newly refurbished holiday inn across from Mcarthur Park. When my brothers and i were very young, one sunday our mother and father took us to the park to hear the band concert. As we approached the curb, we were met by a policeman who said we do not allow colored to listen. My mother and father said my mother said well find Something Else to do this afternoon. I thought about what maya angelou said once and that is i dont remember what you said. I dont remember what you did. But ill never forget how you made me feel. And as i passed by Mcarthur Park yesterday, i remembered that i had never gone past there since then until yesterday. So again, its growing up during that time i like to refer to. As in spite of because in spite of the laws that prohibited us from doing things, we were always supported by our families, our community, our church to think that we could always excel in whatever we wanted to do if we worked hard enough. [applause] thank you, ms. Greenwashington has got to go. Eopia. You, tr she will be talking later about one of the projects that has i think has really been a big part of your life. Shell talk about that a little later. Griff stokley Grif Stockley to come up and answer that same question about what things were going on. Grif is a local author and historian and he has devoted his life to writing about and researching civil rights history and hes done many, many books on the subject. Mr. Stockley thank you very much for this introduction and inviting me to participate on this panel. Obviously, it is a very moving experience for all of us. As i understand it, my task is to talk briefly about the central high crisis in terms of what happens before 1957. There are a number of ways to do this, and obviously im only going to be able to touch on part of it. But im going to begin by reading a sentence from an in the Arkansas State press on march 20, 1959, by lc bates elsie bates about the fire at the Arkansas Negro Boys Industrial School outside of little rock that burned to death 21 boys locked inside a dormitory. Mr. Bates wrote and im quoting here we wonder if the white man in the south who has set the pattern for the negro to live by can find any consolation for the irreparable damage that his system has caused. An accompanying headline read is segregation worth this . Was acknowledging that he ordered the print in negative of one thfr victims to be destroyed. The remains were, quote, too gruesome to be filed in the morgue. In other words, what conceivable benefit could result from a system of White Supremacy that resulted in such horrible deaths were these 21 adolescent children some of whom had had no , place to live and some who were merely guilty of petty crimes, such as stealing a bicycle . Thee today again honor courage of the little rock nine and all those who assisted them, surely it is our obligation to continue to explore how much of our racial history has been covered up in arkansas or misrepresented. Let me give you an example or two of what im talking about. As the pressure on the little rock white power structure to implement a desegregation plan rossed in 1956, margaret the polaskir of county Historical Review and who a history column for the arkansas gazette wrote a lengthy article entitled if negroes feel the writing of their history has not been assumed satisfactorily by the white people then qualified , negroes should undertake the on ms. Smith pick excessively, but she surely knew that the deck was stacked in arkansas in the south. Land of titled Opportunity One familys quest for the dream, a report by William Adler dr. Calvin smith, who i believe was the first African American hired as a professor at Arkansas State was interviewed for background material about growing up in marianna in the heart of the arkansas delta and incidentally my hometown. Historian dr. Smith told author dr. William adler that the books we got from central let me interject, that is why graduated had where i nothing on black history. To read them was to reinforce your nonexistence. This omission was hardly an oversight. In his 2005 book, the southern past, a clash of race and memory, National Historian wrote the North Carolina and arkansas history commissions made their first foras into forays into marking and preserving historic shrines as they were charged to do by their charters. They inevitably focussed on sites hallowed by whites. Black newspapers, institutional records, and private correspondence went uncollected. The void in the collections of the south impeded opportunities to understand the southern racial order from any perspective other than its architects. Moreover, it twisted and constrained all subsequent Historical Research on African Americans in the region , effectively erasing black historical agencies. Im going to skip that part. In in my introduction to black boys burning, the 1959 fire that at the Arkansas Negro Boys Industrial School published this , summer by the University Press of mississippi, i wrote in the introduction is elsy and his as elsy and his wife daisy bates knew only too well, White Supremacy had been carried out over time by slavery, bad science, murder, rape, terrorism, lynching, massacres, mass incarceration, disfranchisement, racial cleansing, arson, racial covenants, predatory lending, loan discrimination, redlining, blockbusting, segregation, intimidation, humiliation, discrimination, denial of free speech, termination from employment, a truly massive debt to Financial Resources for services lawfully intended for black citizens, quarantine, rather than effective treatment of black persons diagnosed with tuberculosis, paternalism in a civil and criminal Justice System that routinely denied African Americans due process and equal protection of the law. As an integral part of impediments to africanamerican rights, the official and unofficial writing of the sometimescial past resemble propaganda rather than history in order to justify the action of white southerners. Notwithstanding the carnage and devastation caused by the civil war, accounts of the souths struggle and its defeat over time have often been transformed into an occasion for nostalgia, reenactments, and legends, rather than attempts to calm to terms come to terms with its actual history. My reason for listing all these ways that White Supremacy has been implemented in arkansas is to suggest the obvious that the lead up to the constitutional crisis in 1957 at central high was not just about any quality in education in a qualityuality on any inequality in education in a poor Southern State, but grew out of arkansass racial history beginning with slavery and coming forward. As another way of thinking about our racial history before 1957, let me review some unnerving parallels. Im going to read an abbreviated ntry from the arkansas slave narratives which are the , interviews of former slaves by individuals employed by the Works Progress administration during the great depression. You you can go online and read the arkansas interviews. For far too long the interviews have been ignored by arkansas historians. This has begun to change, fortunately. The following is from an interview of peter brown, age 86, who was born outside of pine bluff. In a classic understatement, mr. Brown said my remembrance of slavery is not at all favorable. I heard the master and overseer swooping the slaves before day. They had stakes fixed in the ground and tied them down on their stomachs stretched out and beat them with a bull whip. They would break their blisters on them with wide oak paddles that had holes in it so that it would suck. I heard that going on when i was a child morning after morning. Lets fast forward to what was occurring at the Arkansas Negro Boys Industrial School, roughly a century later. This is from an interview in 2009 with a man who remembered his experiences at the Negro Boys Industrial School in 1959. I need to add that frank lawrence, whose brother lindsay did thethe fire, we interview together. But mr. Nash said, and im going to quote here id gotten about five or six whipings. He said boys were whipped if you wet the bed, if you didnt pick enough cotton, if you got to fighting, if you tried to run off. He said he, quote, was held down by other inmates and hit with a big old strap as wide as your hand. Give you 10 or 15 licks, had boys hold you down, strapped tore your butt up, unquote. An entire century had passed and black people, this time children, were still being whipped. Now this week in 2017 we read in the paper about how and i quote senator Stephanie Flowers from pine bluff, who said about the states juvenile jails we built a school to prison pipeline. Until we acknowledge and begin to analyze the aggregate consequences of our implementation of White Supremacy in all its historical and psychological manifestations, we dont stand much chance of understanding and internalizing its irreparable damage. As it so happens, the history of the Arkansas Negro Boys Industrial School between 1923 and 1968, when a federal judge finally signed an order after delay after delay ending segregation in the boys socalled industrial schools, thanks to john walkers dogged litigation, is a textbook example of how difficult these issues are. Now that the jury the segregation has ended, have we solved the issues of White Supremacy, how easy it is to ignore what goes on outside of little rock. We would deceive ourselves by thinking thank you that we can understand our racial history in arkansas for a single through a single pane of glass, for example, education. The shocking disparities between black and white institutions in arkansas were a consequence of the commitment of the white to maintainure White Supremacy for as long as politically possible. In other words, the conditions at that school and other black institutions and the attitudes of the white power structure towards them were a product of , quote, Structural Racism, which scholars have defined as a normalization of an array of dynamics, historical, cultural institutional, and interpersonal that routinely advantages whites while producing cumulative and adverse chronic outcomes for people of coller. By sayingclude Structural Racism encompasses the entire system of White Supremacy. And infused in all aspects of society, including our history, culture, politics, and economics. Thank you. [applause] ms. Kerny thank you, grif, very much. A lot of good history there. I i am going to ask the judge to change up a little bit. I have a pet peeve and that one is that our children theres like a list of maybe 10 history subjects that theyre given to talk about usually or if theyre asked to write about it. Theres not a lot that they know as far as people who really made a difference before 1957, but there are loads and loads of people that have. And i would love for you to come up here and talk about some people who made a difference and probably things could have been even worse than they were had those people not done that. So would you do that for us . Judge branton so i grew up in the segregated south in pine bluff. All of arkansas was and all of the south was. But we always had people that we looked up to, certainly in my own family. There was my family, we were in educated family. Folks had gone to college and whatnot. We had our own businesses. So we had some role models within our family. So i never had to look beyond my family for some role models and that was a good thing for my development. But if you look at some of the i want to Say Something about some of the lawyers not just in arkansas, because my dad was typical of many lawyers across the south. If you were a black lawyer in those days, you were automatically, by definition, a civil rights lawyer. One of the things Justice Marshall would say is he went from place to place and say you know, i go into these communities and do what i do, and i get on a car or train and leave town, and i leave the local lawyer there. They showed that last night if saw the movie, marshall. Marshall. But that was the reality. And you could name one of the things my dad always did was to go through a litany of the lawyers who cooperated with the naacp around the nation who were willing to take on these difficult cases. Oftentimes they did not pay any money. Oftentimes they put themselves at a great risk, yet they were trying to give people regrow a legalion representation at a time when legal representation was hard to off and im going come by. And im going off subject, but i really do want to say we the work ofgnize the naacp, the National Association for the advancement of coller people colored legal, and the defense fund. [applause] and this isn because the naacp was correct me, mr. President founded around 1919 and theyd begin to confront Racial Injustice in america and they quickly learned to do it in a legal way. Later on, they created the Legal Defense fund, and they really became separate entities. But they had a strategy of attacking racism and oppression around the nation. So the little rock case is kind of brown verses board of brown versus board of education was an naacp effort. Some of the cases attacking Higher Education before that , where they attacked the separate but equal doctrine and were able to get blacks into some professional schools or law school, medical school, or whatnot, those worked. But brown was the blockbuster case, and but it was a strategy. One of the things about little rock is they didnt think anything was going to happen in little rock. As compared to the rest of the south they knew something might jump out in alabama, georgia, mississippi, but arkansas was considered a fairly moderate place on race relations. So things unexpectedly went off the track in the fall of 1957, much to their surprise. So little rock really wasnt on the strategy board of the national naacp office. It really started out as a purely local effort with the local naacp, my father as an attorney, local black plaintiffs they found they had no idea into theing to morph thing it would morph into in the fall of 1957. That i say think god for the that but i say thank god for the naacp and the lvf. Ldf. [applause] ms. Kerny thank you, judge. My question to each of you, we cant go back and change anything thats happened in history. Weve had to struggle through it and will continue to struggle through it. If you could talk to me about one thing that we as americans, as arkansans, as southerners could have done so that there would not be a celebration of the little rock nine today, that we could have prevented the pain, the struggles we have gone through. America is supposed to be or we are one of the greatest countries in the world. What is it that we could have done to preclude this . I want to start with Grif Stockley mr. Stockley obviously is my mic on . Ms. Kerny can you turn it up . Mr. Stockley obviously, as a white person from mariana, arkansas, we could have done so muche, and we did more than we did. Our history and this is what i am interested in now. We know that so much of our his is simply wrong. I can tell you some things that are going on now that finally, we are beginning to change. I wasfor example going to say this if i had more what we no longer write happened in elaine, in the surrounding area, phillips 1919 was an attempted insurrection by blacks, but was a massacre by whites, whose dimensions are still being investigated. We know and write, for example, about for example in 1949, at the arkansas social work conference, it was revealed that arkansas white School Boards diverted 4,250,000 in 1948 that was intended for black that thanks toow the first black ph. D. At the universe of arkansas at fayetteville, who did a masters thesis about the negro boys school in 1956, that the condition that the socalled schools were horrific. That the boys, im quoting here, besides brutal whippings, many boys go for days with ration for not half where neither sox nor underwear during the winter of 1955, 1956, when this study was in progress. I could go on with his criticisms of the Negro Boys Industrial School. This was a prison work farm for black adolescents, not an institution to train or rehabilitate children. Let me just conclude what im saying by noting that we have begun to change this through a number of ways. This is something that i think we can begin to be proud of. There are a number of, i guess, state institutions, which now have bugun to tell the truth about our arkansas racial history. Of course what we should have , done was never to commit the sort of things im talking about. What we can do, what we can do is Work Together to tell our true history about what we did do, and this is something that i mean i would not be able to , name i would probably leave example, the for Butler Center for arkansas studies. We know other institutions, arkansas studies institute, we are doing research to tell the truth about the elaine race massacre. There is so much more we can do and will be doing. I hope as students and the audience you will realize that you will have an opportunity to be a part of rewriting our history which an fact, some much of it was propaganda to justify our behavior. I will close there. Thank you very much. [applause] i just want to let people know there are books that are going to be [indiscernible] at 1 00 in the library, [indiscernible] [inaudible] would you repeat that . Atat 1 00 this afternoon, the central high library, there will be a book signing by authors including myself, but one about the fire at the negro boys and fester in school. There are several other authors who have written, i think, some really excellent works which go our racial history that we never recorded or that we recorded wrongly. Hopefully, you will have an opportunity to look at some of the books and actually maybe buy some. Thank you. [applause] in response to the question, what could have been done . That provokes a lot of thought. One of the things i thought about, i mentioned earlier that i was a student at dunbar high school. Our football team, the bearcats, where allowed to use football field the football field on friday. It through the years that i was at dunbar, we would walk by central going to the football field, and looking at the thating, and realizing building was three times the size of our high school, you figured there were three times as much things going on. As in our high school. And then i thought about Something Else that preceded that time. Earlier something about my mother being a teacher and teachers at dunbar. But, teachers at that time, black teachers, although they law to receive graduate degrees were not allowed to go to colleges, to southern colleges. The state paid for teachers to go away in the summer for six degrees earn graduate at the university of wisconsin, the university of new york, and so forth. All of that says to me that there is a time and place for everything. In i think what occurred 1957 was the cumulation of all those things that had occurred over the years. Whether it was the teachers being sent away and the south, our passing by to play on the fridays,field only on that by 1957, it is kind of like a cauldron in which the liquid is bubbling up. By 1957, it was boiling over. That was the time for action to be taken. And thank goodness for lawyers like Thurgood Marshall. Wiley branton senior, and others, who came to the rescue and sought to it that central and of course, that meant that others cools eventually in arkansas would finally be allowed to accept everybody as it should have been all along. [applause] i love my country. It is a great country. But my love and my patriotism for my country does not make me blind, blind to its many, many faults. Twoica was founded on original sins. The first sin was the taking of this land from an indigenous people. [applause] the second sin was slavery. [applause] are not giving the country back and dont put me on the boat and semi me back to africa. I am here. But, this creates a duty in america for to sink redemption to seek redemption and atonement. That is what makes america to have a special obligation. We have things to pay for. That is why we have a special duty. It is not because we are so wonderful and that we are blessed from above, it is because we have some things we need to pay back. We need to make some things right. The only way we can do that is to provide moral leadership in the world, moral leadership right here at home, and before i get political, let me shut up and sit down. [laughter] [applause] what you when you all please put your hands together for this amazing panel . [applause] i am going to need to ask mr. Terence coxe if we have time for questions . Two questions . Ok. All right. Anyone yes . Let me give her one of the microphones. Thank you. My name is dr. Carolyn. I am here from oakland, california. I travel with a group called soldier into the past. We work with educating students about civil rights and social justice. A class on the little rock nine which is four hours. Each time i hear that arkansas was a moderate state and you do not think it was going to happen here, i was born in arizona. My parents are from fordyce. What at understand moderate Southern State is and why you thought it would not happen here. Relative concept your relative to alabama. Concept. Elative relative to alabama. Relative to mississippi, georgia. Terrible things have happened in arkansas. An arkansas, we did not consider it the deep, deep south. That is all. But it is a matter of relativity. Anyone else . Yes, maam . Thank you for your questions. Hello. My name is nor appeared i want to say thank you for coming. Im a recent graduate. And now a doctor education candidate at ul a are. Sad to say is, it is that we are currently, as young paths asiving similar the days of segregation back in the 1950s and 1960s. What is a word of advice you would give for me being a minority and a muslim in america, or any other minorities, what word of advice would you give us to keep pushing and to keep achieving our goals . Thank you. Thank you for your question. A couple words. Never give up. [applause] you will win. Vote. Get your friends to vote. We are in the chance to win because people do not turn out to vote the way they should be voting. [applause] i would think that all of us need to relearn our history and question what we have been realizen the past, and that there are better days ahead. [applause] thank you. Thank you all for your questions. I am going to close by saying that i also am the founding ceo of something called the celebrate mya project. We celebrate mya angelos life and her contributions here and arkansas. This weekend, we brought in a ,onderful group of children students, i am sorry. Students from the marble elayne School District. They have been here and they saw miss carlotta yesterday and hopefully they will get a chance to see some of you. I want them to stand up and introduce yourselves altogether. Not each of you. [applause] we had a wonderful day yesterday and we look forward to the rest of this day. This has been wonderful. Thank you all. I have learned so much. Thank you. [applause] one more. One more. I would not be able to go State University in maryland if i did not do this. Bear with me for two minutes. At lily State University, we have been privileged to work on film,iculum to make a produced by sharon look cruise, a group has been working on this for the past three or four years. It has just been completed. I was allowed to introduce it to you, the first audience to hear about this. And i will have flyers with the abstract on the table in the back. There are still copyright issues being developed because it will be online along with the film, daisy bates first lady of little rock. In about another month, please title, and you will be able to acquire a curriculum and the film. We are extremely pleased to honor daisy bates by completing this curriculum. Thank you. [applause] announcer interested in American History tv . Cspan. Org asite, straight or you can view our schedule, preview upcoming programs and watch college lectures, museum tours, archival films and more. American history tv, at cspan. Org history. Everything was devastating for him at the end. He was really in some ways isolated and alone. Tonight, on q a, author and professor at Amherst College and his biography gorbachev. He trusted the soviet people. He trusted them to follow him. That is, to democratize their years. In a few short he trusted them to follow him as he moved the country toward a market economy from a command economy. He trusted them to follow him and trust him as he made a piece the cold war against the ancient enemy, the United States. He trusted them too much, it turned out. Announcer tonight at 8 00 eastern on cspans q and a. Tonight on afterwards. The story and Craig Shirley on the life and political career of Newt Gingrich with his book citizen new to, a making of a conservative. He is and by tom davis. This is an era before cable television. News was not there. It was before cnn, before msnbc. It was just Little Pockets of cable here and there. Mostly reruns of i love lucy lucy and andy griffith. There was no talk radio to speak of. This is the big media. And cspan. Realizes the potency of giving special orders every afternoon, doing a fiveminute speech. Because it was being carried over cable into 100,000 homes around the country. Andy dick armie army, former congressman deck army used to read him about it. Gingrich would say, would you go give an audience give a speech to 100,000 people . And he said of course i would. That is what you are doing with cspan with special orders every afternoon. Cspan became he quickly leader andolitical he is giving 700 letters a week from people around the country to this backbench, Junior Member from georgia. Already achieving a national following. Announcer watch afterwards tonight at 9 00 p. M. On cspan twos book tv. Announcer this year marks the 100th anniversary of Buffalo Bills death. And the buffalo