Posted by Jonathan Adler:
Little Rock -- Fifty Years Later:
http://volokh.com/archives/archive_2007_09_23-2007_09_29.shtml#1190778124
Fifty years ago today, federal troops escorted nine black students,
through an angry mob, into little Rock's Central High School. Shelby
Steele [1]looks back:
On this 50th anniversary of Eisenhower's troop deployment, the
significance of the Little Rock crisis--its place in history--is
much clearer. I believe it was the beginning of a profoundly
different America. . . .
the deeper historical importance of the Little Rock crisis follows
from the simple fact that it was televised. It was, in fact, the
first time that this still fledgling medium was able to make
America into a community by rendering up a riveting real-life drama
for the country to watch. Compelling personalities emerged, like
the despicable and erratic Gov. Faubus, who kept flaunting federal
authority like a little potentate. There was Eisenhower himself,
whose grandfatherly patience with Faubus seemed to belie a sympathy
with this racist's need to hold on to a fading authority. And there
was the daily gauntlet that the black students were made to
walk--innocence face to face with evil. And, finally, there was
great suspense. How would it all end? Would there by a military
clash, another little civil war between North and South?
So Americans watched by the millions and, in this watching, saw
something that would change the country fundamentally. Every day
for weeks they saw white people so consumed with racial hatred that
they looked bestial and subhuman. When white racism was a confident
power, it could look like propriety itself, like good manners. But
here, in its insecurity, it was grotesque and shocking. Worse, it
was there for the entire world to see, and so it broke through the
national denial. The Little Rock crisis revealed the evil at the
core of segregation, and it launched the stigmatization of white
Americans as racists that persists to this day. After Little Rock
whites stood permanently accused. They would have to prove a
negative--that they were not racist--in order to claim decency. And
this need to forever beg one's innocence is the very essence of
white guilt.
[2]More from Angela Onwuachi.
References
1. http://www.opinionjournal.com/extra/?id=110010650
2.
http://www.blackprof.com/archives/2007/09/fiftieth_anniversary_of_the_li.html
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