Arkansas Gazette, by Harry S. Ashmore

In his clear and forthright ruling in the Little Rock school case Federal Judge Ronald N. Davies lias swept away the legal confusion generated by the apparent conflict between state and federal laws.

The judge ordered the Little Rock School Board to proceed on schedule with its plan for limited, gradual integration at the High School level—and he enjoined "all persons, in any manner, directly or indirectly, from interfering with the plan of integration as approved by the United States District Court."

This means that on Tuesday some 15 Negro children will be enrolled at Little Rock Central High School along with more than 2,000 whites. There are those who have suggested that this cannot be done without inciting the populace of this city to violence They have, we believe, too little faith in the respect of our people for law and order.

We do not believe any organized group of citizens would under any circumstances undertake to do violence to school children of any race And if there are any individuals who might embark upon such a reckless and indefensible course we have no doubt that our law enforcement officers can and will preserve order.

This is a time of testing for all of us. Few of us are entirely happy over the necessary developments in the wake of changes in the law. But certainly we must recognize that the School Board as simply carrying out its clear duty—and is doing so m the ultimate best interests of all the school children of Little Rock, white and colored alike.

We arc confident that the citizens of Little Rock will demonstrate on Tuesday for the world to see that we are a law-abiding people.

Little Rock arose yesterday to gaze upon the incredible spectacle of an empty high school surrounded by National Guard troops called out by Governor Faubus to protect life and property against a mob that never materialized.

Mr. Faubus says he based this extraordinary action on reports of impending violence. Dozens of local reporters and national correspondents worked through the day yesterday without verifying the few facts the governor offered to explain why his appraisal was so different from that of local officials—who have asked for no such action

Mr. Faubus contends that he has done nothing that can be construed as defiance of the federal government.

Federal Judge Ronald N. Davies last night accepted the governor’s statement at its face value and ordered the School Board to proceed on the assumption that the National Guard would protect the right of the nine enrolled Negro children to enter the high school without interference.

Now it remains for Mr. Faubus to decide whether he intends to pose what could be the most serious constitutional question to face the national government since the Civil War. The effect of his action so far is to interpose his state office between the local School District and the United States Court. The government, as Judge Davies implied last night, now has no choice but to proceed against such interference or abandon its right to enforce its rulings and decisions.

Thus the issue is no longer segregation versus integration. The question has now become the supremacy of the government of the United States in all matters of law. And clearly the federal government cannot let this issue remain unsolved, no matter what the cost to this community.

Until last Thursday the matter of gradual limited integration in the Little Rock schools was a local problem which had been well and wisely handled by responsible local officials who have had—and we believe still have—the support of a majority of the people of this city. On that day Mr. Faubus appeared in Chancery Court on behalf of a small but militant minority and chose to make it a state problem. On Monday night he called out the National Guard and made it a national problem.

It is one he must now live with, and the rest of us must suffer under. If Mr. Faubus in fact has no intention of defying federal authority now is the time for him call a halt to the resistance which is preventing the carrying out of a duly entered court order. And certainly hr should do so before his own actions become the cause of the violence he professes to fear.

When a handful of Negro children prepared to enter Little Rock Central High School under court order Governor Faubus declared an emergency—and now one exists.

When a handful of Negro children prepared to enter white schools in three North Carolina cities Governor Hodges declared that there would be no emergency—and now all is calm in his state.

This contrast is of telling significance. These western and eastern anchors of the northernmost tier of Southern states have much the same topography and racial composition, and until this week they had followed the same moderate approach toward the federal government's more recent rulings in the field of race relations.

It is no doubt true, as Governor Hodges said this week, that the majority of North Carolinians continue to favor voluntary segregation of the schools.

It is similarly true that the majority of Arkansas citizens continue to prefer segregation of the schools, although the percentage figures Governor Faubus is constantly spinning out of his head are without visible proof.

But it is beyond this point that the governor of Arkansas and the governor of North Carolina quit speaking the same language this week.

Governor Hodges took no stand either way on the fact of limited school integration undertaken by local authorities at Greensboro, Charlotte and Winston-Salem. The North Carolina governor simply said that "North Carolinians do not like lawlessness" and made it quite clear that anybody who had other ideas would be promptly dealt with. The handful of irresponsibles who have sought to cause trouble, as in the case of the white boy who threw a stick at a younger Negro girl at Charlotte, were immediately taken in hand—and by local authorities.

So on the second day of school id Charlotte there was no trouble at all. The Charlotte Observer reported that the city had settled down again. "The matter is over and done with and I do not believe there is even a remote possibility of any further trouble," said the editor of the Observer.

This is how it could have been in Little Rock had Governor Faubus not taken it upon himself to intervene in the situation with public statements expressing his fear of violence and in fact inciting it. When he called out the National Guard he did so without consulting any of the local authorities who bear the direct responsibility for maintaining law and order. He did not assist these officials but in fact defied them just as he has defied the federal courts.

This was the significant point made by Mayor Woodrow Mann in his statement expressing deep resentment at "Mr. Faubus' unwarranted interference with the internal affairs of this city." And the mayor pointed out that his own police force had had no reports of interracial strife even after almost a week of extreme statements from the governor.

In his lengthy telegram to President Eisenhower asking for understanding and support, Governor Faubus said among other things that he had not had his "day in court" to explain why his fear of possible violence was so great that he had decided to call out the National Guard to prevent integration at Central High School.

We believe that the governor should have such a day—and that it should be in federal court as soon as possible.

There is, as it happens, a clear precedent. In a Texas case in 1932 the governor of that state called out the militia on the ground that the effort to enforce a federal law limiting oil production would produce violence. In a unanimous opinion written by Chief Justice Hughes the Supreme Court rejected two basic contentions of the Texas officials—first that the governor was personally beyond the jurisdiction of the federal courts, and second that the reason for his calling out the militia was not a proper matter for the court to consider. The Supreme Court held that the reverse was true in both instances—that the governor was subject to injunction in any constitutional matter and that his action in calling out the Guard to prevent violence where none yet existed was really the heart of the matter.

And the Court significantly noted further that in any event the only proper purpose for calling out the militia was to enforce the law, not to prevent its enforcement.

These are precisely the questions Governor Faubus has posed in the present case. Here as in the Texas action the heart of the matter is whether in fact the threat of violence was so real that Mr. Faubus was justified in preventing by force of arms the carrying out of a federal court order.

It is a question that must be settled if the impasse is to be resolved.

We hope, therefore, that Mr Faubus is prepared to accept his "day in court" if it is offered to him. and in the act of accepting also indicate his willingness to abide by the court's final decision.

If he refuses the only assumption will he that he is embarked upon a course deliberately designed to test the powers of his state office against those of the federal government. Having used force himself he would thus invite the federal government to reply in kind—with consequences that defy the imagination.

Now the scene shifts hack to the federal court room, where it should have been all along.

This in itself brings a sort of order to the unseemly proceedings which have afflicted this community. Governor Faubus' apparent acceptance of the jurisdiction of the United States District Court means there can be an orderly resolution of the impasse Mr Faubus created when he called out the National Guard to block the Court's order.

Yet at the same time Mr. Faubus has made it quite clear that he will not himself contribute to an orderly solution. He will, he has said, withdraw his forces from Central High School if he is ordered by the Court to do so. But he will do nothing to uphold the law and prevent the violence his flagrant actions have invited.

Here, then, is the naked political design under which the governor has operated from the beginning and let no Arkansan forget it in the days ahead when the real issue is clouded by legalisms.

The good offices of Representative Brooks Hays, who served as an honest broker between the White House and the Mansion in an effort to negotiate a settlement failed because Orval Faubus could not bring himself to make the political sacrifice the reversal of his policy of defiance would have entailed.

The governor knows that he can retain the fickle loyalty of the extreme segregationists only by going all the way with them. To deviate, to return to the course of reason and honor and respect for the law, would be not only to lose their votes but cause them to turn on him with all the fury they have unleashed against him in the past.

So Orval Faubus has done what Jim Johnson promised to do in the campaign which Mr. Faubus won and Mr. Johnson lost. He has adopted the course preached before the Citizens Councils by Amis Guthridge. He has defied the government of the United States—and has gotten away with it so far.

In the end, of course, he will not get away with it. But he is winning now in the limited political terms in which he deals. In those terms, indeed, this may be his finest hour; he is a hero to the mob and behind his barricade of bayonets he is untouched by the shame he has brought to his more responsible fellow citizens.

But time passes and passions die and reason somehow is restored. Summer will come again, and a new campaign—and Mr. Faubus will have to count what he has lost against what he has gained. It is too early to strike the political balance.

But the moral balance has been determined. In a time of testing for all the people of Arkansas Orval K. Faubus was found wanting.

Yesterday afternoon Federal Judge Ronald Davies, after listening to competent testimony, held that the people of Little Rock are law-abiding citizens.

Last night Governor Faubus, who refused the day in court he once complained he had been denied, in effect held to the contrary.

In his television broadcast Mr Faubus rejected the findings of a duly constituted court of law and substituted his own judgment. He did so, he contended, because of the Court's bias. And to sustain this charge Mr. Faubus argued that Judge Davies had issued his injunction on the basis of the testimony of "carefully screened" witnesses.

The witnesses who testified that they had found no threat of violence in Little Rock and had not requested the intervention of Governor Faubus and his state troops were.

1) The mayor of Little Rock.

2) The chairman of the Little Rock School Board.

3) The superintendent of the Little Rock Schools.

4) The principal of Central High School.

5) The chief of Police of Little Rock.

These are the public officials who were directly charged with carrying out a gradual plan of integration voluntarily evolved by the elected representatives of this community. These are the public-officials who were charged with proceeding with their plan by the highest judicial authority in the land—after the National Association For the Advancement of Colored People went to law to protest that the program was too gradual. These are responsible men, deeply rooted in this community, who had tried to do their duty as they saw it.

These are responsible public officials of Little Rock who believed—and so testified under oath—that they could have resolved a difficult social problem in good order and with good will had not Orval K. Fauhus refused their pleas for support and instead embarked upon a course that invited violence and disorder.

***

Carefully screened witnesses, Mr. Faubus said. Who else should have been called upon except those who live here, who have wrestled with the problem for more than four years, and who bear the final responsibility for the conduct of local affairs?

The truth is that the testimony before Judge Davies was in effect screened by Mr. Faubus himself—who ordered his attorneys to walk out of court before they were called upon to introduce the evidence of possible violence Mr. Faubus still says he has, but has refused to divulge.

This could have been, as we have said, Mr. Faubus’ day in court. It was his opportunity to display for his own people, and for the world to see the evidence of impending disaster which he has repeatedly said prompted him to call out the National Guard to thwart the orders of the federal court.

He did not do so. Nor did he choose to subject those who testified against him to cross-examination. Instead he apparently has fallen hack on the legalisms of states versus federal rights and has launched upon a course of court appeal—which, of course, is his right.

But in the meantime he has called off his troops and apparently washed his hands of any responsibility for upholding the law, which at intervals and even in his broadcast last night he still says he accepts. As usual Mr Faubus has not made it clear whether his State Police will support local authorities in case of trouble—the simple act of duty he refused to agree to undertake in the long negotiations through which the White House patiently sought a settlement out of court.

Mr. Faubus last night for the first time fell back on the final defense of the demagogue lie sought to divert attention for his own role by charging that he is the victim of an evil conspiracy.

The truth is that there is only one issue:

Orval Faubus versus the law of the land.

At Second Presbyterian Church yesterday the Reverend Marion A. Boggs offered a special prayer:

"We pray that all persons in authority be given wisdom, and we ask God to restrain the passions of violent men. We pray that we will not suffer the spirit of lawlessness to gain ascendancy in our community, and that all persons have the patience to wait the due process of law."

These solemn words had their echo in many other Little Rock churches yesterday. They bespeak the heart of the community.

The march of events in Little Rock over the last three weeks has now led to an inevitable climax.

Yesterday President Eisenhower made the hard and bitter decision he has sought to avoid. He will use federal troops to restore law and order to the City of Little Rock.

The president's language made his meaning unmistakable. To the White House reporters at Newport he read a statement in the numbered paragraphs of the old military man.

"I want to make several things very clear in connection with the disgraceful occurrences of today at Central High School in the city of Little Rock.

"1. The federal law and orders of a United States District Court implementing that law cannot bo flouted with impunity by an individual or any mob of extremists.

"2. 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."

We can hope that we may yet escape the tragic spectacle of federal soldiers deployed on the streets of Little Rock for the last time since the post-Civil War period of Reconstruction.

The decision is up to the members of the riotous mob which assembled yesterday at Central High School and finally passed beyond the control of the local police—who did their duty and did it well.

If these reckless men force the issue again this morning the federal troops will march—as they must march to restore order and end the intolerable situation in which this city now finds itself.

This is a tragic day in the history of the republic—and Little Rock, Arkansas, is the scene of the tragedy.

In one sense we rolled back our history to the Reconstruction era when federal troops moved into position at Central High School to uphold the law and preserve the peace.

Yet there was no denying the case President Eisenhower made in solemn words on television last night.

Law and order had broken down here.

The local police could not restore the peace with their own resources.

Governor Faubus had refused to use his state forces to enforce the law. and instead had used them to defy the order of a federal court—and in so doing had made this last painful step inevitable.

And so the reckless course the governor embarked upon three weeks ago has raised old ghosts and tested the very fiber of the constitution And. the greatest irony of all, he has by his acts and words dealt a major and perhaps a lethal blow to the cause of segregation which he purported to uphold.

We in Little Rock had perfected a plan to meet the Supreme Court’s new racial requirements in education gradually and largely on our own terms. The federal courts had sustained us. But now Mr. Faubus and the angry, violent and thoughtless band of agitators who rallied to his call may well have undone the patient work of responsible local officials.

We can still hope that this will not be the case. Unhappy though it may be, the action of the president in using federal force will serve to restore the calm that is essential to an orderly approach to any problem. In the days ahead we as a people will, we believe, regain our perspective and accept the clear course of duty.

That is the job for all of us now—to restore the peace and sustain the law.

Who will build Arkansas if her own people do not?

The floodlighted billboard legend stood out in Gazette Chief Photographer Larry Obsitnik's dramatic night shot of federal troops moving across the Broadway Bridge toward Central High School.

There were no state or community builders in the crowd that had provoked this humiliation for the law-abiding majority of Little Rock citizens. Among the adults in the mob that had thronged around the high school for a number of days, there were no leaders of the established business community, no philanthropists or sustained supporters of worthy civic causes. Many of the crowd, by no means all of them from out-of-town, were forced to ask directions to the School—a circumstance which gave some indication of their prior interest in educational matters. These were not builders, but wreckers.