the summer occurs, and it s kind of bumping along, and i get an invitation, my mother and i, to go down to the superintendent s office to indicate that i ve been accepted as one of the students to transfer to central that fall. i thought it was going to be a fairly quiet day. and up until and so did most people in little rock, and the night before school was to open, the good governor orville faubus comes on television and says that he s calling out the national guard to keep us out of school. and i m thinking oh, my goodness, you know, i m a senior. i want to graduate, and i m walking into this huge unknown. and that first day the pictures on the brochure of elizabeth and the mob behind her, it dawned on me that maybe this was something other than my going to school, that there s some other issues going on here, and that i said i wanted to be a part of the change in the south. well, my moment came. and for three weeks, in fact, most people didn t think eisenhower was going
documentary that i think public television has been doing on mrs. bates, but the moment came that i had a chance to say that i wanted to transfer. i wanted to transfer because you saw this huge building. you passed it every day. you knew that i came out of a family of teachers, and they always complained about the resources that central had as compared to what we had, the hand-me-down books, so and i figured i wanted to get the best college education i could, so if i want to central, and they had more of what we wanted to have, that this was going to be a good thing. the summer occurs, and it s kind of bumping along, and i get an invitation, my mother and i, to go down to the superintendent s office to indicate that i ve been accepted as one of the students to transfer to central that fall. i thought it was going to be a fairly quiet day. and up until and so did most people in little rock, and the night before school was to open, the good governor orville faubus comes on
people in little rock, and the night before school was to open, the good governor orville faubus comes on television and says that he s calling out the national guard to keep out out of school. and i m thinking oh, my goodness, you know, i m a senior. i want to graduate, and i m walking into this huge unknown. and that first day the pictures on the brochure of elizabeth and the mob behind her, it dawned on me that maybe this was something other than my going to school, that there s some other issues going on here, and that i said i wanted to be a part of the change in the south. well, my moment came. and for three weeks, in fact, most people didn t think eisenhower was going to step forward and do anything. i don t think up until the last month we were talking earlier, i had an opportunity to sit with herbert brownell back in the 80s, we were at the eisenhower eisenhower library. and i said, you know, eisenhower really didn t need to send 1,000 paratroopers with the 101st
military commander in chief dealing with the subordinate who had let him down in the midst of the battle. eight schoolchildren entered central high. by mid-morning angry white his gathered outside the school with which the fact that it was led with the cronies, it wasn t spontaneous. and it got reeg ugly in a hurry. and little rock mayor wilson ordered the withdrawal of the black students for their own safety. the integration of central high had lasted all of three hours. the power of moderation had failed and to the man s credit, he readily accepted that he failed and he moved to a new mains of maintaining order and implementing the court s directive. he now understood only one course of action remained open to him. in my career he said if twrou have to use force, use overwhelming force and save lives nearby. how s this for overwhelming force? we call the secretary of the army at 12:08 p.m. secretary of the army issued the orders and two hours later they had wheels up on the
a complete success. the governor, he said, is appreciative. ial allowed him to beat an honorable retreat. he will go home now and tell the national guard to maintain order and protect the black children when they arrive at central high. within hours after departing the conference, faubus informed congressman hayes that he had absolutely no intention of issuing any statement announcing new orders for the guard. upon learning of faubus reversal the president realized he had been duped. the famous eisenhower temper boiled to the surface but as a clear example of the immense character of the man, he admitted what happened and he placed the first call to his attorney general who advised him against meeting faubus in the first place, he were write, brownell, faubus broke his word. i could tell he was furious, says brownell. he was a military commander in chief dealing with faubus, a subordinate let him down in the midst of battle. eight black school children entered central high.