Two Presidents

This tells us that, 50 years ago today, Republican President Dwight D. Eisenhower stood up to Arkansas Governor Orval Faubus and resolved the case of the “Little Rock Nine” (much of this post will come from this Wikipedia article).

Schools in that state had to desegregate as a result of the Brown vs. Board of Education ruling in 1954. However, segregationists refused to allow nine black students into Central High, with the support of Faubus, who ordered the Arkansas national guard to support the segregationists by blocking the black students from entering the school.

Eisenhower warned Faubus to allow the nine students to enter, but when he didn’t, the U.S. Justice Department requested an injunction against the governor's deployment of the National Guard from the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Arkansas in Little Rock. Judge Ronald Davies granted the injunction and ordered the governor to withdraw the National Guard on September 20.

The governor backed down and withdrew the National Guard, and the Little Rock Police Department took their place. Hundreds of protesters, mostly parents of the white students attending Central High, remained entrenched in front of the school. On Monday, September 23, the police quietly slipped the nine students into the school.

When the protesters learned that the nine black students were inside, they began confronting the outnumbered line of policemen. Under threat of a near riot, the nine students were escorted out of the school.

The next day, Woodrow Mann, the Mayor of Little Rock, asked President Eisenhower to send federal troops to enforce integration and protect the nine students. On September 24, the President ordered the 101st Airborne Division of the United States Army to Little Rock and federalized the entire 10,000 member Arkansas National Guard, taking it out of the hands of Governor Faubus. The 101st took positions immediately, and the nine students successfully entered the school on the next day, Wednesday, September 25, 1957. After some time, each African-American student was given an individual escort inside Central High, to prevent harassment by other students.

Eisenhower took bold action to do the right thing by the students in compliance with the Supreme Court’s ruling in Brown, and somehow I really don’t think he cared about the subtleties of “the states rights question” as he did so.

Now, we have the story of the Jena 6 (a full Wikipedia chronology is noted here), and after a recent demonstration in which a huge number came out in support of Mychal Bell, Carwin Jones, Bryant Purvis, Theo Shaw, Robert Bailey, and Jesse Ray Beard (Bell is the only one currently incarcerated while the District Attorney considers whether to appeal the verdict overturning Bell’s conviction or try Bell as a juvenile), it now appears that a large number of white supremacists are going to rally in support of the actions of Murphy McMillin, the mayor of Jena, and Justin Barker, the white student beaten at Jena High School allegedly by the six, as well as others decrying what they perceive as injustice against whites.

This story tells us the following…

First a neo-Nazi Web site posted the names, addresses and phone numbers of some of the six black teenagers and their families at the center of the Jena 6 case and urged followers to find them and "drag them out of the house," prompting an investigation by the FBI.

Then the leader of a white supremacist group in Mississippi published interviews that he conducted with the mayor of Jena and the white teenager who was attacked and beaten, allegedly by the six black youths. In those interviews, (Mayor McMillin) praised efforts by pro-white groups to organize counterdemonstrations; the teenager (Barker) urged white readers to "realize what is going on, speak up and speak their mind."

Over the weekend, white extremist Web sites and blogs across the Internet filled with invective about the Jena 6 case, which has drawn scrutiny from civil rights leaders, three leading Democratic presidential candidates and hundreds of African-American Internet bloggers. They are concerned about allegations that blacks have been treated more harshly than whites in the criminal justice system of the town of 3,000, which is 85 percent white.

And today, the following column by the Rev. Jesse Jackson appeared in the Chicago Sun Times, notably this excerpt about the threat from the white supremacists (say what you want about him, but at times like this, he speaks from experience).

Threats by neo-Nazi white-supremacy groups need to be taken seriously. These groups are heavily armed and dangerous.

The governor and attorney general of Louisiana are silent. The local prosecutor remains belligerent. This is a time for federal intervention. The federal government intervened in Little Rock and Selma. Local authorities refuse to discharge their duty. The government must act now. I urge President Bush to intervene.

The presidential candidates in both parties should also exercise leadership here, speaking clearly about the need for reconciliation and justice. Republican candidates particularly should demonstrate that they can rise above racial divides to demand fairness and justice in America. Thus far, Republicans have been campaigning as if all America were a white suburb. They cited "scheduling conflicts" to avoid a debate sponsored by a historically black college. Other than John McCain, they ducked the Univision Latino debate. This disdain for reaching out caused former Republican vice presidential nominee Jack Kemp to complain, "What are we going to do -- meet in a country club in the suburbs one day?"

But the Democratic nominees should not assume that they can inherit minority votes. They have to earn them. Standing up for justice and against this kind of hatred is an essential measure of leadership.

These threats are serious. The FBI should be investigating; the Justice Department intervening. The civil rights laws were passed to empower the federal government to act.

It is time for George W. Bush to stand up.

Indeed it is.

President Eisenhower understood that when opposing Orval Faubus. But as for what George W. Bush does or doesn’t understand…well, God only knows.

We had presidential leadership in a crisis in 1957. I don’t know if we’ll have it in 2007, but we will have it again one day. Let us hope and pray, though, that it doesn’t take an inferno of racial hatred to provide it.