LITTLE ROCK — Little Rock city directors repealed a 54-year-old declaration Tuesday in which their predecessors declared support for Gov. Orval Faubus’ intervention at Central High School and said immediate integration of the schools at the time was not in the best interest of race relations.
“I think it says we’ve made some progress since 1957,” Mayor Mark Stodola said about the new document authorizing the repeal.
The board’s action Tuesday “doesn’t erase history but recognizes much progress has been made,” he said.
Little Rock Central High School became internationally known Sept. 2, 1957, when Faubus sent Arkansas National Guardsmen there. Faubus said he called out the National Guard “to maintain ... the peace and good order of the community” and directed the Guard to prevent nine black students from entering the all-white school, notwithstanding a court-approved desegregation plan.
On Sept. 20, Faubus removed the guardsmen on the order of a federal judge. 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 Dwight Eisenhower then federalized the National Guard and sent 101st Airborne Division troops to the school the next day to enforce the school’s integration. The black students attended school the rest of the year under federal protection.
The 1957 declaration deplored Eisenhower’s judgment and said time and understanding, not force, were the answer to Little Rock’s integration problem. The document, which was not legally binding, also suggested state aid be withheld from schools being forced by the federal government to integrate students.
The document’s official repeal comes after a group of residents working to unify different areas of the city learned of the resolution’s existence. The Better Together Building Community Taskforce made the repeal its first project, with leaders saying it would show that the city “now knows better.”
Along with repealing the declaration, the 2011 resolution also calls for a review of city ordinances, resolutions and declarations to identify others that “classify or reflect negatively upon citizens because of their race, religion, economic or ethnic background.”
City Manager Bruce Moore said he will appoint a team of city staff members that will meet monthly. The team will make reports on its progress to the Building Community task force.
In a written report to city directors, Moore said he hopes their work will be done by the end of 2012.
Because the new resolution was on the board’s consent agenda Tuesday and no one voiced a “no” vote, it will go down in history as receiving unanimous support, Moore said. (City Director Brad Cazort was absent, however.)
But the resolution wasn’t without opposition.
“It seems to me as if the Chamber of Commerce has become the city manager or the mayor if we passed this resolution,” said City Director Erma Hendrix, who sees the additional review as asking too much of city staff. The Building Community Taskforce evolved from a Chamber of Commerce project.
Hendrix, who was in her 20s at the time the Little Rock City Council passed the original declaration, asked after the vote whether anyone researched whether any of the people involved were still alive. No one answered.
Hendrix was critical of the repeal when it first came up a few weeks ago and said residents should focus on issues of today rather than 54 years ago, such as eliminating the at-large director positions that she and other residents believe disenfranchise black residents.
“We’re working on it,” she said after the meeting, adding that she could be considered a “nay” vote on the repeal.
City directors did not talk about the repeal last week when they set Tuesday’s agenda and approved the six items that would be approved without discussion.
After the vote Tuesday, City Director Ken Richardson read off a number of statistics showing a disparity in income and employment between residents living on different sides of Interstate 430 and 630.
“I think some times when we pass resolutions or have celebrations, it puts us in the comfort zone and we forget about these startling statistics,” he said. The statistics, he said, “suggests we have a lot more work to do.”
City Director Joan Adcock, who was a senior at Central High School in 1957, voted for the repeal. She said she was comfortable with the resolution’s wording after some initial concerns that it would be critical of the City Council at the time.
The resolution recounted what the original document said and simply stated, “The Board of Directors of the City of Little Rock, Arkansas does hereby repeal the Declaration of the City Council of the City of Little Rock, Arkansas dated September 30, 1957 which is recorded in Book __ at Pages 156 and 157 of the Book of Ordinances of the City of Little Rock.”
The blank will be filled in by the city clerk.
Arkansas, Pages 11 on 12/07/2011