Arkansas Blog: Red and yellow, black and white UPDATE

Did anybody else notice this correction in this morning's Arkansas Democrat-Gazette?

Three Japanese-American students attended Little Rock Central High School during the 1957-58 school year, during which nine black students integrated the school. Until then, segregation laws barred black students from Central High. A Nation in Brief item in Wednesday’s editions about President Bush’s comments at a black-history month event at the White House erroneously reported that Central High was all-white before the nine black students were admitted.

UPDATE: The question of whether Central was "all-white" before 1957 has now entered into the newspaper's strange policy on inserting partially erroneous boilerplate into stories about Central. It is designed to make Gov. Orval Faubus look a little more law-abiding. (Back story: Executive Editor Griffin Smith's father labored inFaubus-friendly legal trenches back in those dark days.)

Check the jump for new marching editors for D-G writers. The error is the implication that Faubus had to remove troops to comply with the court order. He did not. The judge said the troops could remain to keep peace, but they could not block entry of black students.

E-MAIL TO DEMOCRAT-GAZETTE STAFF

From: Sandra Tyler <styler@arkansasonline.com>

Date: Wed, 13 Feb 2008 15:22:18 -0600

To: NightCopy <NightCopy@arkansasonline.com>, DayCopy <DayCopy@arkansasonline.com>

Subject: Central style update

Please make the following correction in your stylebooks:

Little Rock Central High School became internationally known Sept. 2, 1957, when Gov. Orval Faubus sent Arkansas National Guardsmen there. Faubus said he called out the National Guard ³to maintain ... the peace and good order of the community² and directed the Guard to prevent nine black students from entering the school, notwithstanding a court-approved desegregation plan. On Sept. 20, complying with the order of a federal judge, Faubus removed the guardsmen. When the black students went to Central three days later on Sept. 23, a violent crowd gathered. The students were removed for their protection. President Eisenhower then federalized the National Guard and sent 101st Airborne Division troops to the school the next day to enforce the school¹s integration. The black students attended school the rest of the year under federal protection. OR Little Rock Central High School became internationally known in 1957, when nine black students integrated the school. Until then, segregation laws barred black students from Central.

---------

The long version goes in cover stories, 1A or 1B. The short version generally appears in briefs of say 4 inches, the idea being that we don't need to double the size of a brief by adding the longer boilerplate. And, of course, when we have multiple Central High '57 stories, we do not use the boilerplate multiple times on one day; once is enough.

Comments

Maybe they were considered kind of, you know, just a little off-white. . .

Posted by: Don Keyhotay | February 14, 2008 08:31 AM

Nah, Don, it 'cause we had whipped their butts ten years earlier, proving only white skinned people win wars so we had a spirit of benevolency.

Posted by: Cato | February 14, 2008 09:04 AM

Sorry Cato, Don Kehotay is closer to the truth. When Executive Order 9066 (signed by FDR on February 19, 1942) incarcerated approximately 35,000 individuals of Japanese descent (most of whom were American citizens) in two euphamistically named War Relocation Centers in the Arkansas delta during WWII, the locals were extremely curious about the "yellow peril" coming to living in their back yard.

Quite a few residents showed up to greet the first trains that arrived at Jerome and Rohwer in 1942. Their consensus? "White enough."

The large majority of local animosity (probably better described as resentment) aimed at the Arkansas camps came not from racial prejudice or fear of the enemy but from the fact that in the poverty-ridden delta the Japanese American prisoners were eating better and enjoying a higher standard of living than most of the white and black residents of the delta who lived outside of the fence.

In the last legislative session, Rep. Robert Moore sponsored HB 1959 to erect some signage at Jerome and the cemetary at Rohwer for approximately $50,000. The bill passed but the governor hasn't funded it--you can help commemorate "Day of Remembrance" on February 19 by contacting the governor's office and asking him to fund the signage bill. Hopefully, this small bit of information about what happened at those sites during WWII will not only educate visitors, but help teach the lesson that all American citizens--regardless of ethnicity--are due their rights under the U.S. Constitution.

Posted by: historian | February 14, 2008 09:59 AM

interesing point by the historian. curiously, when the japanese-americans were given leave from their "interment" camps to do business in nearby towns, they were told to use "white-only" restrooms. i suppose they were white enough then, but not for central high and certainly not for the dem. gaz's perverted take on history. race is a tricky thing, and the dem. gaz. is not helping.

Posted by: brockthompson | February 14, 2008 10:47 AM

Three Japanese-American students are not enough to count according to today's standards. When using sub-groups for scoring three of any group would not be enough to count at Central today. I don't think it matters to the nine black students if there were three Japanese-Americans in school. Has anybody ask these three students what they thought about what was going on? Maybe, that ought to be the story.

Posted by: saywhat | February 14, 2008 10:49 AM

Arkansas Blog

Red and yellow, black and white UPDATE

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