Source Pg. 19 & 20
bravery in a radio message, saying all parents must have sympathetic understanding for the ordeal to which we nine children had been subjected. Now he issued a warning statement:
I want to make several things very clear in connection with the disgraceful occurrences today at Central High School in the city of Little Rock. I will use the full power of the United States, including whatever force may be necessary, to prevent any obstruction of the law and to carry out the orders of the Federal Court.
He ended his long statement
by demanding that all persons engaged in obstruction of justice "cease and
desist."
"At least we've got a
President who respects the law," Grandma said, applauding.
"There will be no school
for you tomorrow, Melba," Mother Lois said.
"But I'm going to school
tomorrow, aren't I?" Conrad asked.
"Perhaps. We'll have
to see how things go," Mother Lois said.
"I'll be that mob will heed
the President's words," Grandma said. "Things will
be back to normal tomorrow."
But this time Grandma was
wrong. After a restless night, we awoke on Tuesday to find the mob had
not heeded the warning of the President. As early as 7:30A.M. more than
two hundred people had gathered in front of Central High to protest our
arrival. The headlines read:
IKE CLEARS WAY TO SEND
TROOPS: COMMANDS CEASE AND DESIST IN LEGAL
MOVE
-Arkansas Gazette, Tuesday,
September 24, 1957
The article said that
President Eisenhower signed a history-making proclamation clearing the way for
possible use of federal troops to quash any further school integration violence
in Little Rock.
But next I read: FAUBUS CHALLENGES IKE ON USING TROOPS.
From Sea Island, Georgia, on September 23, Governor Faubus had declared that
the President couldn't use federal troops to combat the Little Rock integration
violence unless he, as governor, requested him to do so. And he added,
"I don't plan to make any such request."
An even as I read those
headlines, the announcer on the radio said the unruly crowd surrounding Central
High was larger than it had been the day before.
Source
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