Brown V Board Of Education Dbq Essay

In 1954 the Supreme Court had ruled in the case of Brown v. Board of Education that segregated public schools were unconstitutional and had reversed years of standard practice. This had defied deeply-held societal behaviors and thus caused widespread southern opposition. Formerly in 1955 a case known as Brown II ordered schools to desegregate as quickly as possible. Then, in 1957, in Little Rock, Arkansas, they planned to integrate nine African American students to an all-white high school called Central High School. However, after the town had heard about this a group of protestors had shown up outside of the school to protest and withhold the students from going to school there. In turn, President Eisenhower had no choice and needed to direct

Eisenhower had a duty as President to protect the nation from all threats foreign and domestic and when the court ruled that segregation in schools was not allowed and protests began outside of the Central High School he had no choice but to enforce the court’s ruling. It began when Mayor Mann had sent him a telegram which stated, “In the final analysis, it was deemed advisable by the officer on the ground and in charge to have the colored children removed to their homes for safety purposes” (Document E). The mayor had no choice except to contact the president because even though the governor had sent the National Guard in order to help control the protestors the National Guard, however the National Guard had instead prevented the students from entering the school and were then ordered to be recalled by the federal district court. In a photograph taken during the time of the protests it shows two Arkansas National Guardsmen blocking a student Terrence Roberts from passing them to go to school (Document D). This is the main reason why President Eisenhower had no choice except to intervene in Little Rock and send federal troops to Central High School in order to allow the students to be able to go to school and disperse the livid mob of

Eisenhower, President of the United States…. Including Chapter 15 of Title 10 of the United States Code, particularly Sections 332, 333 and 334 thereof, do command all persons engaged in such obstruction of justice to cease and desist therefrom, and to disperse forthwith” (Document F). From this document you can tell that President Eisenhower did not want to just send federal troops to Little Rock he wanted to try everything else first in order to avoid confrontation. By federalizing the National Guard he had the proper constitutional justification and in the United States Constitution, Article II it states, “The President shall be commander in chief of the Army and Navy… and of the militia of the several states… He shall take care that the laws be faithfully executed” (Document A). The Constitution allows the President to take control of the state’s National Guard and Federalize them if he needs to in order to take care that the laws set forth by the government are being faithfully executed and not being disregarded and