This Day In Racism History: Little Rock, Arkansas
September 4, 2008
The New York Times reminded me that a scant 51 years ago, on this day:
“Fully armed, the troops kept the Negroes from the school grounds while an angry crowd of 400 white men and women jeered, booed and shouted, “go home, niggers.”"
Background:
“This action set the stage for the first major test of the United States Supreme Court’s decision of May, 1954, that racial segregation in schools is unconstitutional.”
A recurring point I try to make: Racism, institutional, popular, and enforced by the government, is NOT a relic of our distant past. We were sending men to the moon, and calling up the National Guard to stop blacks from attending the same schools as whites.
… and the cow goes moo
[...] September 25, 2008 51 years ago today, the US Army was sent in so that nine black high school students could attend the white Central High School in Little Rock. This, merely 21 days after the National Guard had scuttled a previous attempt to desegregate the sch…. [...]