Executive Order 10730: Little Rock Nine: Main Idea
Executive Order 10730: Little Rock Nine: Main Idea
The Feds are in control to uphold the law and remove barriers to integration of Central High School.
The Supreme Court's Brown v. Board of Education decision in 1954 made segregated schools illegal. So when Arkansas Governor Orval Faubus refused to allow nine African American students entrance to Little Rock's Central High School, and mobs of rioters surrounded the kids, Eisenhower had to act to uphold the law and ensure those students' constitutional rights under the equal protection clause of the Fourteenth Amendment.
Executive Order 10730 ordered the Arkansas National Guard to come under the control of the federal government, and ordered the Guard and the Army to restore order and allow the Little Rock Nine to enroll at Central High. Whether they liked it or not, Little Rock was going to admit the students or Eisenhower would send in the troops.
Literally.
Questions
- Who were the "certain persons in the state of Arkansas" that Eisenhower referred to in the order and how did they "wilfully obstruct" justice in Little Rock?
- What did Eisenhower mean by authorizing the secretary of defense to "take all appropriate steps" to enforce the court orders?
- Is the idea that a president can act on his or her own authority, without the approval of Congress, contrary to democracy?
Chew On This
If Eisenhower hadn't put down this obstruction of justice, then the rule of law would mean nothing.
This bottom line in Little Rock wasn't states' rights; it was racism.
Quotes
Quote #1
Such wilful obstruction of justice hinders the execution of the laws […] and makes it impracticable to enforce such laws by the ordinary course of judicial proceedings. (3)
For three years, integration has been the law of the land. Mobs of angry people screaming hateful things and threatening kids may stand in the way of the law, but they don't change it. Since the usual procedures didn't work, Ike had to raise his game.
Quote #2
Such obstruction of justice constitutes a denial of the equal protection of the laws secured by the Constitution. (4)
The Fourteenth Amendment, ratified in 1868, says that all American citizens must be treated equally under the law. This line in the Executive Order is drawn from the Supremes' decision in Brown that school segregation violated the equal protection clause. A Constitutional law is a serious matter and requires serious measures.
Quote #3
I, DWIGHT D. EISENHOWER […] command all persons engaged in such obstruction of justice to cease and desist therefrom, and to disperse forthwith. (5)
Seriously, folks, give it up and go home. Now.
I am the President. Of the United States.
Executive Orders can be controversial because they carry the weight of law, but they come directly from the president without input from Congress. Many members of Congress see them as a huge example of Presidential overreach. And guess what—a new president can overturn them with the same stroke of a pen they were issued with. Still, every President issues tons of Executive Orders, and the opposition party dutifully calls the president a "dictator."
Quote #4
I hereby authorize and direct the Secretary of Defense to order into the active military service of the United States […] any or all of the units of the National Guard […] and of the Air National Guard […] within the State of Arkansas. (8)
By ordering the National Guard into federal service, the president was saying that the governor could no longer command those troops to prevent integration. Ike was pulling rank on Orval Faubus.