1

*For the Faculty Selection Committees consideration: Please note that I have derived
the following writing sample from a working chapter of my doctoral dissertation. Although the
sample may function as a standalone piece, I would like the committee to be aware that it will
ultimately belong within a larger, contextualized dissertation and will be undergoing further
advisory evaluation, editing, and revising as my disquisition further progresses to completion
(anticipated Fall 2017).

Litmus in Little Rock: Judge Ronald N. Davies and the Influence of the
Northern Plains within Twentieth-Century Civil Rights and Race Progress

With urging from Senator William Wild Bill Langer of North Dakota, President Dwight

D. Eisenhower appointed Judge Ronald N. Davies of Fargo to the United States District Court

Judge for the Eighth Circuit for North Dakota in June 1955, he ceased any formal political party

affiliation and became a Constitutionalist. Accordingly, with an egalitarian approach to the law,

Judge Davies administered numerous court proceedings and handed down rulings with

measured, fair, and tactful consideration for all parties in any case that appeared on his judicial

calendar. Once temporarily assigned, again by President Eisenhower, to the Eastern District of

Arkansas on August 26, 1957 to help clear an overloaded docket, the Aaron vs. Cooper case

quickly tested Judge Davies judicial resolve in a highly contentious legal situation wrought in

racial tension, volatility, and direct opposition from countless citizens and local governing

institutions, including the states governor, Orval Faubus.

Judge Davies now-famous ruling in September of the same year not only ordered the

racial integration of Central High School in Little Rock at a momentous time during twentieth-

century race relations, but also cast him as a pivotal figure that embodied the significance and

influence of the Northern Plains on civil rights and race progress in the United States. Despite

overt oppositional defiance from many local and regional social and political figures, including

Governor Faubus and senators and representative from other Southern states over his ruling,

Judge Davies held unwaveringly steadfast in his interpretation of federal law as he believed best
 2

upheld true and equal rights for all citizens regardless of race, economic class, or educational

background. At the same time, he maintained a low public profile and declined any opportunity

to offer his personal sentiments of his role in the crisis.

As a result, the circumstances that surrounded both Davies professional life and race

relations above and below the Mason-Dixon Line warrant further inquiry that aids in the

understanding of complex social, cultural, political, and individual race relations through Judge

Davies and the Northern Plains role in shaping lasting changes in Americas civil rights and

racially progressive movements. Judge Davies received multiple letters of personal

correspondence, appeared widely in news publications across the country, ordered and FBI

investigation into the Arkansas governors actions, and became the target for public and political

debate both locally and nationally and therefore represents both an original and significant

opportunity to contribute to the wider social, cultural, political, and racial discourse.

Because Judge Davies judicial actions and the Crisis at Little Rock represents only a

fraction of a much larger narrative and history surrounded by many similar cases since the

Brown v. Board of Education ruling, a deeper understanding and working knowledge of the

events develop a scholarship that are not only part of the larger racial ideology, but also

distinguish Davies role in Little Rock that many have overlooked due to his unpretentious and

measured public presence before, during, and well after 1957. Davies continuously refused to

accept any accolades or civic honors for his decisions in Little Rock and maintained an unself-

promoting method within the public eye throughout his entire career, even citing his own judicial

actions as humdrum and where a treatment of his actions aim to highlight the significance of

his decisions and underscore his character as a significant stimulus to race progress beyond the

local stage and limited time frame.

 3

As a part of twentieth-century scholarly methodology, a discourse of Davies'

constitutional approach and public cadence when dealing with the situation in Little Rock and

the direct opposition he faced one behalf of the state government supports the historical

navigation the complexities of racial tension that were coupled with deep fissures in state and

federal racial and educational policy at the time of his appointment. Judge Davies stood at the

precipice of racial integration and although only a physical stature of five-foot two-inches in

height, was far from diminutive in neither his jurisdictional decisions nor the enforcement of his

constitutional determinisms.

At the same time, the crisis of integration in Little Rock public schools signifies a formal

break in both de facto and de jure segregation, while Judge Davies functions as a conduit

between the past and present and also serves as a standalone piece within a larger historical

account. Still, a present study leads to more questions as numerous other elements factor

heavily into the influence of Judge Davies character and career on civil rights and race progress.

A discourse of Judge Davies actions emphasizes scholarship that elevates his decisions within

the broader racial and political history of twentieth-century school desegregation, civil rights,

and race progress. Through an examination of Judge Davies and his decision to enforce the

integration of Little Rock public schools, new questions surface regarding both President

Eisenhowers civil rights policy and the role of the state and national government with issues of

racial equality.

First established in 1870, the Little Rock School District had always maintained a well-

practiced policy of segregation. Yet, shortly before Judge Davies federal judiciary appointment

in 1955 over 900 miles north, Virgil T. Blossom, superintendent of public schools in Little Rock,

Arkansas, crafted a plan for gradual or phased-in integration based on the Supreme Courts
 4

milestone ruling in Brown v. Topeka Board of Education in 1954, which declared racial

segregation in public schools unconstitutional and legally ended school segregation and ordered

national integration forthwith. Five days after the courts decision, the Little Rock School

Board issued a policy statement that outlined its intentions to comply with the federal court

ruling once the Court outlined the method to follow. At the same time, in Brown II, the Supreme

Court further defined the standard of integration enactment to be with all deliberate speed and

charged the federal courts with establishing guidelines for compliance. By August 23, 1954,

chairman of the Arkansas National Association for the Advancement of Colored People

(NAACP) Legal Redress Committee, Wiley Branton of Pine Bluff, directed a petition to the

Little Rock School Board for immediate integration.

Although fixed as superintendent for under five years, Blossom held 28 years of

experience in education and believed his plan beginning with the high school level in September

of 1957 and matriculating through the lower grades over the next six years, could be fully

implemented by 1963. At the same time, blacks represented approximately twenty percent of the

districts total student body with a ratio of 5,484 blacks to 16,242 white students city-wide. The

Little Rock School Board approved Blossoms measures on May 24, 1955 and officially set into

motion a series of legal alterations to an entrenched and widely-accepted system of racial

inequality in public education. However, Blossoms plan still embodied a protracted approach to

legal integration and therefore bringing seminal changes into actualization proved slow in the

immediate wake of both the Supreme Courts decision in 1954 and subsequently Blossoms

blueprint for desegregation in 1955.

A month later on June 25, 1955, Superintendent Howard Vance of Hoxie School, located

over 120 miles northeast of Little Rock in the small town of Hoxie, Arkansas, and serving
 5

approximately 1,000 white students, the school board also moved to integrate School District 46

with a unanimous vote against separate schools; citing three specific reasons for their decision:

It was right in the sight of God, it complied with the Supreme Court Ruling, and it was cheaper

for the school system. Like Blossoms plan constructed for the desegregation of Little Rock

schools, Vance and the Hoxie school boards pro-integration movements indicated concerted

efforts towards more racially progressive practices in the public education sphere of influence in

Arkansas, but neither came seamlessly or without controversy.

As twenty five black students entered the halls of Hoxie schools in District 46 a month

later on July 11, 1955, representatives of LIFE Magazine were there to capture the events and

showcase the students as leaders of integration in the state. Reports in appearing in LIFE

indicated a flawless process with little to no resistance or pushback. However, by the end of the

summer, while school officials were withholding an undisclosed number of white students from

attending the integrated classrooms, the Hoxie School Board was seeking legal counsel and

calling on the Arkansas Council on Human Relations for assistance in handling reported

instances of intimidations, harassments, and ongoing conflicts with the Jim Crow laws still

prevalent in the state. Coupled with LIFEs generally positive portrayal and the overall subdued

nature of the events both inside and outside the schools, desegregation in Hoxie garnered little

national attention, but few could deny the contentious disputes the actions ignited by the school

districts first steps toward complete integration and the subsequent need for legal reinforcements

to help concretize the Supreme Courts national resolution that helped push for mid-century race

progress in education.

By February 23, 1956, for the first time since the Brown v. Board of Education, the

Federal Justice Department openly entered the Hoxie dispute on behalf of the integrationists,
 6

thereby formally backing the original Supreme Court ruling and reinforcing the school boards

decision to integrate schools from kindergarten through twelfth grade within two years of the

original decision. Although, again with little local or national attention or uproar, litigation

stemming from the events at Hoxie nevertheless set legal precedence that formally allowed

access to federal involvement in public education and civil rights issues within a state prior to the

Civil Rights Act of 1964. Not only does Hoxie serve as a legal benchmark for both equal

education and the role of the state and the federal government in decisions regarding race and

equality, but so too is it juxtaposed against the volatile events a year later as the people and

students of Little Rock faced a similar situation with markedly different and highly adverse

public, regional, and national reactions.

As rapid as Vances decision initiated change and challenges to public school segregation

in Hoxie and other areas of disputation within the United States, alterations in Little Rocks

public education practices proved slower in acceptance and implementation; the citys

traditionally white school districts would not see its first black students until over two years after

Hoxies twenty five integrationists with more dramatic results that vaulted the city, state,

governor, and United Stated federal court, including Judge Davies, to international

consciousness. Ripples of public opposition to the desegregation of Arkansas schools that began

in Hoxie turned into waves by Judge Davies appointment in Little Rock that further augmented

mounting racial tensions with the Aaron v. Cooper case.

Unlike Hoxie, public sentiment against integration as well as state support to further

delay Blossoms plan was far from muted. In fact, in January of 1956, twenty seven willing

black students attempted to enroll in Little Rock schools, but were refused admission. Following

NAACP legal redress chairman Brantons lead, representatives of the association filed a suit on
 7

February 8, 1956, charging that Little Rock school officials from four separate institutions denied

a total of thirty three blacks admittance based solely on their race. On the same day, Federal

Judge John E. Miller, having declared that the Little Rock School Board has acted in utmost

good faith in creating a method of gradual integration, dismissed the NAACPs Aaron v.

Cooper suit against continued racially-based discrimination in public schools. In April, the

Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals at St. Louis upheld Judge Millers dismissal, thereby further

delaying a timely desegregation of public schools in Little Rock as the city maintained a

fastidious grip on the status quo.

However, despite the legal setback for those eager to integrate, the federal district court

retained jurisdiction over the case and made the School Boards enactment of the Blossom Plan a

court mandate that could not escape implementation indefinitely. Therefore Judge Davies role as

representative for the federal justice system while in Arkansas showcased civil law and racial

equality for a larger national audience, where pervasive and outspoken public discontent only

magnified his constitutional determinisms for race and education in Little Rock and ultimately

directed the flow of federal legislation and civil rights in education in the Southern region. Still,

the case in Hoxie not only characterizes some of the first reactions to the integration of Arkansas

schools, but also laid the initial groundwork for the Federal Justice Department and Judge Davies

to deftly assert the civil law that set a new antecedence for race progress under an acutely aware

public eye.

While Little Rock Senior, renamed Central High School in 1953, constructed in 1926 at a

cost of $1.5 million and opened in September of 1927 to accommodate 2,500 students, embodied

a mecca of public education in the city. Central High stood in grandiose contrast to the stark, less

equipped structures like Paul Laurence Dunbar High School, opened in September of 1929 at the
 8

cost of $400,000, of which the Rosenwald Foundation donated $67,000 with an additional

$30,000 from the Rockefeller General Education fund, meant to serve the segregation black

populations in the city. Although a number of black students lived only blocks away from

Central High School, laws prior to Brown v. Board of Education mandated they travel further

distances to the segregated districts and be subjected to the economic and educational

disadvantages accompanying the poorly funded public institutions with no legal recourse or

maneuverability for change. As the Supreme Courts monumental ruling in 1954 broke the

widely accepted practice of separate-but-equal and the inherent racial ideology entrenched

since the 1896 ruling in the Plessy v. Ferguson case, Blossoms plan for gradual integration

reflected a resolution the stagnation of black education, offered students access to better

education, and most importantly, complied the Supreme Court ruling. The Blossom Plan set

Little Rock high school grades to integrate in September, 1957 and classes were scheduled to

begin at 8:45 a.m. on September 3, 1957 at Central High School.

As Judge Davies settled into his new role as Federal Judiciary appointee for the eighth

circuit in Fargo, North Dakota, in 1955, Orval Eugene Faubus began the first of six consecutive

terms as the Governor of Arkansas. Born in 1910 in Greasy Creek, a small community of

Arkansas Ozark Mountains, Faubus taught school throughout rural areas of the state while also

laboring as an itinerant farmer and lumberjack from 1928 to 1939 and briefly attended

Commonwealth College, a radical labor school in Mena, Arkansas, in 1935. In 1939, Faubus

began rising to prominence in public service when elected to two terms as Madison County

Circuit Clerk and Recorder. Thereafter, he held a number of other civic positions including

Huntsville, Arkansas Postmaster and Director of Highways as a member of the Arkansas

Highway Commission. He also served in the United States Army first as an enlisted man and
 9

later as a commissioned officer of Major in the Army Reserves in European theater from 1942

until 1946. Upon returning from his military duties, Faubus also edited and published the

Madison County Record that appeared weekly from 1947 until 1967.

Contention, controversy, and volatility marked Faubus public and political career and his

stances against racial integration of public schools proved paramount in shaping the Crisis in

Little Rock in 1957. Faubus actions were later the subject of multiple investigations conducted

by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, ordered by Judge Davies, including his controversial

attendance at the Commonwealth College, the integration of public schools in Little Rock,

contempt of court, and two separate extortion investigations.

As the summer of 1957 waned, each mans social, political, legal, and educational ideals

came to a capricious intersection and set the stage for an unprecedented event in race progress on

an international scale; further slated for a contest between the federal court system and the

Arkansas state government and spearheaded by a determined anti-integrationist group, the

Mothers League.

In an order filed August 21, 1957, Chief Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for

the Eight Circuit Archibald K. Gardner stated that, In my judgment the public interests require

the designation and appointment of a District Judge of this Circuit to hold and assist in holding

the District Courtin place or in aid of the District Judges of that District, and officially

assigned Judge Davies to the District Court of the United States from August 24, 1957 until

February 24, 1958. Judge Gardner, born in Ontario, Canada, and having practiced law privately

in Missouri and South Dakota from 1893 to 1929, received his commission to the newly created

United States Court of Appeals for the Eight Circuit from the United States Senate on May 23,

1929, and served as chief judge from 1948 to 1959. Having handed Judge Davies an assignment
 10

that shall extend to cover disposition of any matters submitted during the above period of

assignment, and after only two years of service as a federal judge, Judge Gardner signaled a

confidence in Judge Davies ability to handle any case appearing before him with tactful speed.

Shortly following Judge Gardners orders that brought Judge Davies to Little Rocks

bench in Pulaski County, the Mothers League, a collection of local segregationists sponsored by

the Capital Citizens Council (CCC) held their first public meeting on August 27, 1957. First

organized in earlier in August, 1957, by a local salesman, Merrill Taylor, the Mothers League

developed as an offshoot of the CCC to oppose the Blossom Plan with a feminine, less strident

tone than the more outspoken an volatile edge embodied by the CCC. With an air of womanly

concern for the physical and emotional welfare of innocent white children, stressed and sickened

by the unspeakable conditions under which they were being forced to struggle for an

education,1 according to its members, the Mothers League ardently combined traditional

segregationist enthusiasm to maintain the current system and block racial progress with renewed

focus on states rights and anti-miscegenation platforms. Only approximately one-fifth of its 165

members were mothers of Central High students as of October, 1957. Yet, because members of

the league expressed concern for their childrens wellbeing and safety in an integrated

environment never before experienced in the city or county, members of the league felt they had

suitable right to contest forthcoming integration. Like the NAACPs Aaron v. Cooper suit,

recording secretary of the Mothers League, Mrs. Clyde Thomason filed a motion on behalf of

the group that sought a temporary injunction against school integration in Pulaski Chancery

Court the same day of the first meeting.

1 Cope, Graeme. A Thorn in the Side? The Mothers League of Central High School and the
Little Rock Desegregation Crisis of 1957. Arkansas Historical Quarterly 57 (Summer 1998):
160190.
 11

Two days later, on the grounds that integration could lead to violence, Chancellor Murry

O. Reed granted the leagues request against admitting blacks at Central High School. Having

arrived in state capitol three days earlier to begin clearing an overloaded docket with his

secretary Zona MacArthur, Davies hit the ground running and went into action post-haste. Judge

Davies faced a loaded calendar with a number of diverse cases scheduled throughout each day.

At the same time, because the federal district court retained jurisdiction over the case and made

the Blossom Plan a court mandate as a result of the NAACPs suit the prior year, Judge Davies

immediately nullified the Pulaski Chancery Court injunction the following day when the case

appeared on his schedule and ordered the School Board to proceed with the plan for gradual

integration beginning with the opening of schools on September 3, 1957.

Despite mounting tensions further prodded by members of the CCC and Mother League

as a result of Davis first decision to strictly enforce the federal mandate, the first day of

integration approached only three days after Davies ruling, Blossom, still serving as

Superintendent of Little Rock Public Schools, maintained support the federal enforcement of his

plans first initiation on September 3rd, but Governor Faubus did not express enthusiasm for

integration and set into motion a series of orders that directly defied Judge Davies first ruling in

the Little Rock integration case. On the evening of September 2, Governor Faubus called up the

Arkansas National Guard and State Police and ordered them to surround Central Highs campus

and keep the peace and order of the community, while announcing his plans in a televised

speech. Under the command of Colonel Marion Johnson, approximately 270 Army and Air

National Guard troops created a veritable human bastion that stretched along the two city blocks

in front of Central High.

 12

On the morning of September 3rd, as nine black students prepare to enter Central High

and enroll as the first minorities to attend the traditionally all-white institution armed only with

Judge Davies federal mandate and against the imposing backdrop of military presence, the

Mothers League, including members of the CCC, parents, and students in attendance holds a

sunrise service meeting at Central High as further protest to Judge Davies decision. In

addition, around 300 onlookers formed in the streets in front of the school. The Arkansas

National Guard then closed all roads surrounding the school to all traffic and stationed groups of

uniformed soldiers at each entrance on all sides of the building with orders to admit only current

students, teachers, and administrative officials in an effort to bottle further escalation and diffuse

an outbreak of violence. With confusion and tensions, further compounded by the presence of

Arkansas guardsmen, reaching a fever pitch at Central High, the nine black students made no

attempt to enter the school until after Judge Davies again ordered integration to proceed

immediately at another hearing, which lasted less than five minutes, on the evening of September

3rd.

On the second day of school the following day and with explicit legal backing because of

Judge Davies unwavering adherence to the letter of constitutional law, the nine black students

arrived at Central High to formally enroll, but were turned back by the National Guardsmen at

the direction of Governor Faubus, who still maintained their presence due to ongoing threat of

systemic violence because of Judge Davies insistence on desegregation. Nonplussed by the

Governors overt political postulations and brazen military actions bent on maintaining

segregation in Little Rocks public schools, Judge Davies immediately ordered an investigation

by all offices of the Department of Justice to identify was responsible for the interference of the

courts order to continue with Blossoms plan for integration. Knowing that the state-sponsored
 13

militia had turned away the nine black students, Judge Davies indicated that he would seek a full

investigation conducted by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) to determine whether there

had been a violation of the federal court order.2 Still, the Arkansas National Guard remained on

duty under the ultimate command of Governor Faubus and the nine black students remained on

the outside of Central Highs hallowed halls.

As an attempt to diffuse the unmitigated and volatile local public response to the

execution of the Blossom Plan for desegregation generated during the first few days of classes,

the Little Rock School Board drafted a petition that sought for a stay of Davies integration order

in the best interest of education on September 7, 1957. Judge Davies denied the petition for an

order temporarily restraining the enforcement of its plan for integration on the same day. He then

insisted the issue be dealt with at the present time by issuing an order that prevented Mrs.

Thomason and her group, the Mothers League, and all other persons from interfering with the

Little Rock School Board in carrying out court approved plans for integration.

As promised by Judge Davies, on September 10, 1957, a week after Central Highs doors

first opened for fall classes, Governor Faubus received a Federal Court summons to assist Judge

Davies in determining if they Governors actions in calling up the Arkansas National Guard were

in fact initiated to protect against the threat of violence and preserve law and order or to maintain

segregation instead. Judge Davies also ordered the Governor and the Arkansas National Guard to

be made defendants in the case and scheduled another hearing for September 20th, thereby

continuing to assert federal jurisdiction over the incident and legally superseding the countless

local and state insistences that the issue of integration belonged to the local Pulaski County

authorities. Meanwhile, FBI agents quickly began gathering statements from members of the

2 Initiation of FBI Investigation, folder 3, box 1, Little Rock Integration Collection, Research
Center, Arkansas Studies Institute, Little Rock, Arkansas. (Hereafter, Document Title, folder,
box, Collection, Arkansas Studies Institute.)
 14

Mothers League, parents, students, including the nine black pupils, local officials, Arkansas

National Guard troops and members of the Arkansas political and representative body to better

determine the climate and threat level posed by Davies enforcement of the Blossom Plan and

whether Governor Faubus methods to prevent integration were an earnest attempt to protect the

public or provocative racists measures to deny black students court-mandated equal opportunity

to public education. In additional support of Judge Davies handling of the events from the

federal seat, President Eisenhower issued a telegram to Governor Faubus informing him that at

the request of Judge Davies, the Department of Justice was collecting facts as to the interference

with or failure to comply with the District Courts order and that it was the role of the President

to support and defend the Constitution of the United States and that the federal constitution

would be upheld by him by every legal means at his command3 as guard troops remained

stationed outside Central High.

Two days before the hearing on September 20th, Governor Faubus signaled his adherence

to a belligerent position by filing a statement with the clerk at the office of the United States

District Court in response to a subpoena to appear in court that, While I have the utmost respect

for your Court and its valid processes, I must point out that almost from the very beginning of

our republic it has been uniformly held that the chief executive is not compelled to comply with

a subpoena unless he chooses to do so.4 Governor Faubus goes on to justify his plans to ignore

the subpoena by stating that, because of the obvious ulterior motives of those who obtained

the subpoena, I do not choose to comply with it5 Despite the postulations characteristic of the

3 Telegram from President Eisenhower to Governor Faubus, folder 3, box 3, Judge Ronald N.
Davies Collection, Elwyn B. Robinson Department of Special Collections, Chester Fritz Library,
University of North Dakota, Grand Forks, North Dakota. (Hereafter, Document Title, folder,
box, Collection, UND.)
4 Governor Faubus to Grady Miller, folder 3, box 3, Davies Collection, UND.
5 Governor Faubus to Grady Miller, folder 3, box 3, Davies Collection, UND.
 15

Arkansas Governor, Faubus accepted the summons and immediately held a press conference that

asserts the troops would remain at Central High for the time being and further discouraging the

nine black students from enrolling at the school until after the hearing.

In the days leading to the Friday, September 20th hearing, Judge Davies, as with any case

under his command, spent a significant amount of time reviewing the results of the FBI

investigation, which concluded that their work proved that Governor Faubus had no basis at all

for calling out the Guard. According to FBI officials, Governor Faubus stated that his actions

were taken to maintain law and order and to protect the peace. Yet, It appears he may have been

inclined to rely on rumor, generalities, or sources whose reliability had had not fully

established.6 In fact the investigation did show that Governor Faubus used the National Guard

in a manner which maintained segregation,7 despite the federal court mandate to otherwise

proceed with integration.

Therefore, Judge Davies officially ruled the Governor had not used the troops to

preserve the law and peace and removed the Guardsmen immediately. Judge Davies even went

on record declaring that Governor Faubus, in addition to a number of others, actions were

unlawful and in violation of the Constitution. Because Governor Faubus refused to remove the

troops voluntarily, Judge Davies then declared an injunction against any collective actions that

prevented integration as necessary to protect and preserve the judicial process and proper

administration of justice and protect the constitutional rights of the minor plaintiffs and other

eligible Negro students on whose behalf this suit is brought.8 With Judge Davies maintaining his

judicial resolve and having removed the National Guardsmen so the nine black students could

6 FBI Conclusions, folder 4, box 1, Little Rock Integration Collection, Arkansas Studies
Institute.
7 FBI Conclusions, folder 4, box 1, Little Rock Integration Collection, Arkansas Studies
Institute.
8 Judge Davies Statement to Federal Court, folder 2, box 1, Davies Collection, UND.
 16

enter and enroll at Central High the following Monday on September 23rd and be the first to

attend the previously all-white building, the Little Rock Police Department moved in to provide

police presence in the still-tumultuous streets around the school.

With typical determination and acting as the nerve center of the federal court, Judge

Davies insisted that Little Rock schools move forward with the crucial test of integration now

playing out on a magnified before a national audience. By the time the nine students prepared to

enter the school, over 1,000 people formed an angry mob out front and the Little Rock Police

had to provide escort to get them inside. However, the police removed them after only a few

hours later as concerns for their safety increased dramatically. As images of rioters proliferated

throughout countless local and national media outlets, President Eisenhower called the actions of

the mob disgraceful and ordered federal troops into Little Rock to enforce Judge Davies initial

and subsequent decisions to continue with immediate integration.

By September 24, 1957, 1,200 members of the 101st Airborne Division, the Screaming

Eagles of Fort Campbell, Kentucky, enter the streets of Little Rock and head toward Central

High. On the same day, President Eisenhower placed the Arkansas National Guard under federal

orders to ensure absolute compliance with Judge Davies order that allowed the nine black

students to attend Central High on their first full day of classes on September 25, 1957, though

not without turmoil, under federal troop escort. Thereafter, federal troops maintained their

presence throughout the transitional period of desegregation within the high school, but again,

not without fastidious opposition from the public. In fact, Mrs. Margaret Jackson, Vice President

of the Mothers League of Central High School, file a suit on October 17, 1957 against Colonel

William A. Kuhn, et al., asking the court to order a withdrawal of the troops and restore local and

state police and military presence. With usual tact and one who did not mind being on the firing
 17

line when it came to his strict interpretation of the law, Judge Davies issued a dismissal order

upon the grounds that it raised no substantial Federal constitutional issue9 and continued with

federal protection of the students in and around Central High.

During the incident in Little Rock and in the months following the integration crisis,

countless articles appeared with a gamut of discourses, opinions and interpretations of Judge

Davies, Governor Faubus, and President Eisenhowers actions that ranged in tone anywhere from

laudable to accusatory to unapologetically racist, thereby reflecting the contentious national tone

regarding race progress within the public education sphere. Furthermore, regional and national

divides appear as the implication of each mans decisions became clearer in the days of an

undeniable racial shift. At the same time, Judge Davies received numerous letters of both support

and criticism for his decisions in Little Rock that further illustrated the influence of a man from

the Northern Plains on a mid-century crisis regarding race, civil rights, and the power of the

federal court.

On June 3, 1958, much to the chagrin of everything Judge Davies accomplished with

each thoughtful and carefully weighed decision rendered in Aaron v. Cooper case and the

relatively quiet race relations throughout Little Rock schools following the crisis, including the

graduation of Central Highs first black student, Ernest Green on May 25, 1958, the Little Rock

School Board, well after Judge Davies return to Fargo in February, again asked the court for

permission to delay any further plans for desegregation as established in Aaron v. Cooper, citing

numerous discipline problems that occurred during the school year as a result of integration. On

June 21, Judge Harry Lemley granted the delay of integration until January 1961, stating that

while the black students have a constitutional right to attend white schools, the time has not

9 Court Document Re: Jackson vs. Kuhn, folder 3, box 1, Little Rock Integration Collection,
Arkansas Studies Institute.
 18

come for them to enjoy [that right],10 and acutely showing how deeply entrenched racial

ideology was within the social, cultural, political, and educational sectors in Arkansas and how

aberrant Judge Davies decisions were less than a year prior.

Under appeal on September 12, 1958, the United States Supreme Court rules that Little

Rock schools must continue with its desegregation plan first enforced by Judge Davies just over

a year earlier. In compliance with the Supreme Court fixed by Judge Davies standing order, the

Little Rock School Board ordered the high schools to open on September 15th, but Governor

Faubus again stepped in and ordered four Little Rock high schools, including Central High, to

close as of 8:00 a.m. September 15th pending the outcome of a public vote, thereby truncating

federal authority on the matter. Despite the formation of the Womens Emergency Committee to

Open Our Schools (WEC) and their solicitation for support to reopen Little Rocks high schools,

citizens voted 19,470 to 7,561 against integration and the schools remained closed until August

12, 1959, as segregationists rallied at the State Capitol with Governor Faubus having stated that

it was a dark day and encouraged them to not give up the struggle and ostensibly fight the

federal mandate first executed by Judge Davies. In an effort to underscore the deep veins of

ongoing malcontent, the group then marched to Central High School where police and fire

departments disperse the mob and making twenty one arrests.11

Still, Judge Davies now-famous ruling in September of 1957 ordered the racial

integration of a traditionally white high school in Little Rock at a tenuous time during twentieth-

century race relations and showcased him as a pivotal figure that embodied the significance and

influence of the Northern Plains on civil rights and race progress in the United States. Despite

10 Aaron v. Cooper Court Document, folder 7, box 3, Judge Harry Lemley Collection,
Arkansas Studies Institute.
11 Crisis Timeline, last modified April 7, 2007,
http://www.nps.gov/chsc/historyculture/timeline.htm
 19

extreme obstinance from many local and regional social and political figures, including

Governor Faubus over his ruling, Judge Davies stood solidly in his interpretation of federal law

as he believed best upheld true and equal rights for all citizens regardless of race, economic

class, or educational background. His work stimulated past, present, and ongoing racial progress

within the public, human, and civil rights and helped maintain federal authority on future matters

within any state in the nation.

At the same time, his decision gave President Eisenhower the platform on which to act

and enforce federal law in the face of state interference. Likewise, Judge Davies maintained a

low public profile and declined any opportunity to offer his personal sentiments of his role in the

crisis despite a number of provocative media and political pundits who sought to undermine the

Judges resolve. Nevertheless, as a subordinate of the United States Constitution and the inherent

responsibilities endowed by the judicial implications of the centuries-old document, Judge

Davies enforced its standards of equality with bipartisan zeal while swimming in sea of others in

similar positions, who held like powers and sought to maintain a white-knuckled grip on

segregation an unequal opportunities under the guise of the greater good.