Turn Away Thy Son: Little Rock, the Crisis That Shocked the NationAn eye-opening, meticulously researched work by a Little Rock native that reveals the story behind the headlines of the famous, school desegregation crisis through thirty years worth of research and interviews. In September 1957, the nation was transfixed by nine Black students attempting to integrate Central High School in Little Rock in the wake of the Supreme Court's Brown v. Board of Education decision. Governor Orval Faubus had defied the city's integration plan by calling out the Arkansas National Guard to prevent the students from entering the school. Newspapers across the nation ran front-page photographs of whites, both students and parents, screaming epithets at the quiet, well-dressed Black children. President Eisenhower reluctantly deployed troops from the 101st Airborne, both outside and inside the school. Integration proceeded, but the turmoil of Little Rock had only just begun. Public schools were soon shut down for a full year. Black students endured outrageous provocation by white classmates. Governor Faubus's popularity skyrocketed, while the landmark case Cooper v. Aaron worked its way to the Supreme Court and eventually paved the way for the integration of the south. Betsy Jacoway was a Little Rock student just two years younger than the youngest of the Little Rock Nine. Her "Uncle Virgil" was Superintendent of Schools Virgil Blossom. Congressman Brooks Hays was an old family friend, and her "Uncle Dick" was Richard Butler, the lawyer who argued Cooper v. Aaron before the Supreme Court. Yet, at the time, she was cocooned away from the controversy in a protective shell that was typical for white southern "good girls." Only in graduate school did she begin to question the foundations of her native world, and her own distance from the controversy. A tour de force of history and memory, Turn Away Thy Son is a brilliant, multifaceted mirror to hold up to America today. The truth about Little Rock differs in many ways from the caricature that emerged in the press and in many histories—but those differences pale in comparison to the fundamental driving force behind the story. Turn Away Thy Son is a riveting, heartbreaking, eye-opening book. |
Contents
1 | |
9 | |
CHAPTER 2 | 28 |
Archie House and the Establishment | 46 |
Amis Guthridge | 66 |
Virgil Blossom | 84 |
INTERREGNUM | 101 |
CHAPTER 7 | 130 |
CHAPTER 13 | 242 |
Wiley Branton | 267 |
CHAPTER 15 | 291 |
Everett Tucker | 310 |
Gaston Williamson | 328 |
CONCLUSION | 349 |
AFTERWORD | 359 |
CHAPTER 8 | 382 |
Other editions - View all
Turn Away Thy Son: Little Rock, the Crisis That Shocked the Nation Elizabeth Jacoway Limited preview - 2008 |
Turn Away Thy Son: Little Rock, the Crisis That Shocked the Nation Elizabeth Jacoway No preview available - 2008 |
Common terms and phrases
Amis Guthridge announced Archie House Arkansas Democrat Arkansas Gazette attorney black children Brooks Hays Brown decision Brownell Butler called Capital Citizens Central High School Civil Rights Council Daisy Bates desegregation Eckford Eisenhower election Elizabeth Huckaby Elizabeth Jacoway Everett Tucker Faubus interview Faubus's federal court Folder Governor Faubus Harry Ashmore Huckaby integration interview with Elizabeth interview with FBI interview with Jacoway interview with John interview with Luter interview with Reed Jim Johnson John Luter Judge Miller Justice Department later leaders Little Rock crisis Little Rock Nine Little Rock School Massive Resistance McMath Minnijean Brown NAACP National Guard Negro Orval Faubus police political president Press public schools race racial recalled Rock School Board Rock's Roy Reed segregation segregationist Sept September Sid McMath Smith South Supreme Court tion told TURN AWAY THY University of Arkansas violence Virgil Blossom Wiley Branton wrote
Popular passages
Page vii - When the LORD thy God shall bring thee into the land whither thou goest to possess it, and hath cast out many nations before thee, the Hittites, and the Girgashites, and the Amorites, and the Canaanites, and the Perizzites, and the Hivites, and the Jebusites, seven nations greater and mightier than thou...
Page vii - ... neither shalt thou make marriages with them ; thy daughter thou shalt not give unto his son, nor his daughter shalt thou take unto thy son. For they will turn away thy son from following me, that they may serve other gods: so will the anger of the Lord be kindled against you, and destroy thee suddenly.
References to this book
Wrestling with the Angel of Democracy: On Being an American Citizen Susan Griffin Limited preview - 2008 |