|
Many Americans recognize Little Rock Central High School as a symbol of stubborn resistance against school desegregation in 1957, when nine black students entered the all white school under armed federal protection. School Closure The following year, the "Lost Year" of 1958-59, is less known than the story that preceded it. But the Lost Year is a separate, equally significant historical episode.
During that year, Governor Orval Faubus closed all high schools in Little Rock, locking out 3,665 black and white students from a public education, and locking in almost 200 teachers and administrators to contracts to serve empty classrooms. Every student who was to attend a Little Rock high school was affected. The 10th, 11th and 12th grades were closed. Faubus' school closing occurred at the beginning of the new school year. Several weeks later a referendum was held and Little Rock voters, by a three-to-one margin, supported his decision to close the high schools to avoid integration. Students and citizens were held in limbo as Faubus, supported by segregationists, created new state laws to further forestall court ordered racial integration of schools decreed in the 1954 Brown vs. Board of Education of Topeka. For the second time in two years, many in Arkansas tried to assert state's rights over the authority of federal courts and the power of President Eisenhower. During the Lost Year, Little Rock was further torn by racial conflict, societal disruptions, and political machinations. Denying an education to all Little Rock high school youth profoundly affected thousands of families as the city ruptured into an even more divided community. The Students The students' stories are compelling. White students from Central High, Hall High, and Little Rock Technical High and black students from Horace Mann High scrambled to find an education. Fifteen and sixteen year old children had no access to local public education for an entire year. Many were forced to leave the state. Some studied to enter college early. Others boarded busses daily to travel miles for classes in other cities. Parents and siblings coped with separations from their teenage students who moved in with relatives or with friends around the state. Students, themselves, coped with life-changing disruptions from friends, family, and classes. It was a period unmatched in its peculiarities. Students had no schools to attend, but football continued at all campuses by order of the Governor.
A Private School Corporation for whites attempted to rent public school buildings and hire public school teachers, but federal courts restrained their efforts. Several private schools found alternative locations and alternative teachers and enrolled 44% of all the white high school students in Little Rock. Predictably, class and race were factors in who found schooling and who did not. Ninety three per cent of white students found some form of education for their teens that year. White families were better able to find transportation, pay tuition, or make more elaborate arrangements for alternative schooling. No private education emerged for blacks. 50% of those students did no academic work that year. Many found jobs and hoped that schools would open, or joined the military to finish their education. Ironically, the remaining members of the Little Rock Nine, having suffered through the previous year at Central, were also affected. Some left the state for alternative schooling or enrolled in correspondence courses from universities. The Community Beyond the students, the community was in chaos. The Little Rock School District Superintendent and members of the School Board changed three times through resignations, appointments, and elections. State legislators expanded the troubles beyond Little Rock when they passed laws that targeted NAACP members and jeopardized the civil liberties of all teachers and professors. State employees were intimidated with requirements to list all organizations to which they belonged or to whom they paid dues. For months, the ever changing political upheaval of the community was measured by rising tensions and falling morale in every home of students, parents and teachers.
A Turning Point Opposing sides worked publicly and behind the scenes to jockey for control of their community. The Capital Citizens Council and the Mothers' League of Central High represented the segregationist groups.
The lone public voice of the moderates was heard through the Women's Emergency Committee to Open Our Schools.
Finally in late spring a turning point came in the Lost Year crisis. At a session of the Little Rock School Board, which had gathered to consider renewing the teachers' contracts, three of the six member board walked out. These moderates considered this an end to the official business of the meeting, believing that no further action could be taken by the remaining segregationists.
However, the three remaining segregationists on the Board continued the session, and fired forty-four teachers and administrators who were believed to support racial integration. This purge served as a wake-up call to the city.
Moderates formed STOP (Stop This Outrageous Purge) to recall the segregationist school board members to try to regain control of their community and their public schools. Segregationists' opponents formed CROSS (Committee to Retain our Segregated Schools) and attempted to recall the moderates on the school board. In a twenty day campaign, the opposing sides battled for the hearts of the community.
People of Little Rock had to choose between keeping their beloved teachers and administrators, or bowing to the segregationists' purge. After a year of closed schools and the firing of teachers of both races, the voters of Little Rock narrowly recalled three segregationist School Board members, and the new Board opened schools early for the 1959-60 school year. Lessons of the Lost Year The disruptions of the Lost Year have had life-long consequences for former students and teachers, their families and the community of Little Rock. Their stories must be told. The lessons of the Lost Year, often unknown or little regarded, have much to teach us about public education and a community spirit that challenged segregation. Perhaps most importantly, the Lost Year illuminates how the community took their schools back on an integrated basis and informs the world that all of Little Rock was not represented by screaming mobs of segregationists at Central High in 1957.
About The Lost Year |
About The Lost Year Project
| Tales of The Lost Year
|
