Order over justice : Eisenhower and the school desegregation crises, 1954-57

Bowes, Darren and Johnson, Richard and Mills, Thomas (2024) Order over justice : Eisenhower and the school desegregation crises, 1954-57. PhD thesis, Lancaster University.

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Abstract

In September 1957, President Dwight D. Eisenhower sent federal troops into the city of Little Rock, Arkansas to uphold the orders of a federal court to desegregate the state capital’s high schools. This action might be interpreted as an act of support for the Supreme Court’s 1954 Brown decision that declared Jim Crow segregation unconstitutional. But that interpretation remains contested. In this thesis, I contextualise the decision to send federal troops to Little Rock within the wider desegregation crises that occurred prior to that decision. In doing, I trace the evolution of the Eisenhower administration approach to desegregation, arguing that Eisenhower’s desire to avoid implementing Brown provided an obstacle to the Department of Justice’s efforts to enforce the law and encouraged resistance to the Supreme Court’s interpretation of the Constitution. Eisenhower’s reluctance to support Brown led to an unimpeded act of interposition by Governor Allan Shivers of Texas in 1956. This precedent was a major influence on Governor Orval Faubus of Arkansas in his own act of defiance a year later. The precedent set in Texas undermined enforcement precedents set in Arkansas and Tennessee where the Department of Justice had established some powers to enforce Brown. Thus, the interposition and intervention precedents that predated the Little Rock crisis helped to precipitate the crisis and shape how it evolved. Rather than proactively leading the federal government a successful resolution of the crisis, Eisenhower allowed events to lead his administration. Ultimately, the Little Rock crisis was resolved by a federal judge who was determined to see his court orders upheld.