On this day in 1957, Republican President Dwight Eisenhower ordered federal troops to Little Rock, Arkansas.
In September of that year, a few days after passage of the Republican Party's 1957 Civil Rights Act, Orval Faubus, the Democrat Governor of Arkansas, ordered the state National Guard to prevent the court-ordered desegregation of a Little Rock public school. At first, Republican President Dwight Eisenhower tried to negotiate with Faubus, but after several fruitless weeks the President lost patience with his Democrat foe. Eisenhower had not been afraid to take on the Nazis, and he certainly was not going to be fazed by Faubus or any other Democrat challenging the Constitution.
On the advice of Attorney General Brownell, Eisenhower placed the Governor's soldiers under federal government control and ordered the 101st Airborne to Arkansas. Senators Lyndon Johnson and John Kennedy publicly criticized the President for enforcing a federal court order. Many Democrats actually compared the President's act to the Soviet invasion of Hungary the year before.
Today is the fifty-first anniversary of this great Republican achievement to protect African-Americans from their Democrat oppressors.
In September of that year, a few days after passage of the Republican Party's 1957 Civil Rights Act, Orval Faubus, the Democrat Governor of Arkansas, ordered the state National Guard to prevent the court-ordered desegregation of a Little Rock public school. At first, Republican President Dwight Eisenhower tried to negotiate with Faubus, but after several fruitless weeks the President lost patience with his Democrat foe. Eisenhower had not been afraid to take on the Nazis, and he certainly was not going to be fazed by Faubus or any other Democrat challenging the Constitution.
On the advice of Attorney General Brownell, Eisenhower placed the Governor's soldiers under federal government control and ordered the 101st Airborne to Arkansas. Senators Lyndon Johnson and John Kennedy publicly criticized the President for enforcing a federal court order. Many Democrats actually compared the President's act to the Soviet invasion of Hungary the year before.
Today is the fifty-first anniversary of this great Republican achievement to protect African-Americans from their Democrat oppressors.
