INSIDE KUAR
The scene coincided with watershed moments for both the American civil
rights movement and American media. And though the *Arkansas Gazette*
newspaper won Pulitzer prizes for its coverage, it was images from the
burgeoning television news industry that brought the story to life. The
Staple Singers, who were no strangers to Little Rock, said they wrote
their song "Why Am I Treated So Bad?" after seeing the events on TV. The
iconic images of police dogs and water hoses being turned on civil rights
protesters in Birmingham, Alabama, was still more than five years away.
Brinkley native Al Bell would go on to produce the Staple Singers on
Stax Records and eventually run the Memphis label. But in fall of 1957, Bell
was a young disc jockey at KOKY, located near the Central campus: "When I
sat there at the radio station, when they had the 101 up the street and all
that nonsense going on, those students from Central High School would come
by the station in the morning when I was on the air, and from Dunbar, and
there would be dancing in the studio. This was before the crisis, and during
the crisis. And they'd leave the studio and head off to Central and head
off to Dunbar. So that had subconsciously influenced me because there were no
problems. I didn't see any problems there, because there were no
problems."
Bell said the events did inspire him, and he even later worked with Dr.
Martin Luther King for a period as a student-teacher at Southern
Christian Leadership Council workshops. "I suppose I had a bit of that in
me," he says, "meaning the desire to want to work for progress amongst the
races."
Another Brinkley native, rhythm and blues pioneer Louis Jordan, happened to be in his beloved Arkansas in September 1957, with September 10th being proclaimed Louis Jordan Day in his hometown. Jordan apparently never commented publicly on the events, but was reportedly was saddened by them, and following completion of his next booking of two months in Las Vegas, broke up his band, the Tympani Five.
Louie Armstrong, who recorded several times with Jordan, was, like
Jordan, often criticized for not doing enough on American racial matters
despite his broad and deep worldwide popularity -- which made Armstrong's
comments on the situation at Central all the more notable. Accusing President
Dwight Eisenhower of inaction, Armstrong called Eisenhower "gutless" and
"two-faced," and cancelled a tour of the Soviet Union he had agreed
to do for the U.S. State Department.
Elsewhere in the jazz world, Charles Mingus recorded his lampooning
song "Fables of Faubus" originally as an instrumental, then with lyrics.
This change prompted the persistent rumor that Columbia Records wouldn't
allow the release with the Faubus lyrics. Madison County-born Orval Faubus,
elected governor in 1954, called out the Arkansas National Guard to, as
he put it, keep the peace, or as others see it, prevent integration. It
caused a showdown with the federal government. Little Rock Mayor Woodrow Mann
asked the feds for assistance, and Eisenhower federalized the Guard and sent in
the Army's 101st Airborne Division. Faubus biographer Roy Reed
contends that, ironically, Eisenhower was likely a bigger segregationist than
was Faubus. Faubus, meanwhile, who had had a fairly progressive record,
including on racial matters, vexed liberals and moderates with his
stand.
But he would be re-elected and serve for another decade.
Through the era, protest songs, sometimes symbolism-laced, began to actually make the charts. "If I Had a Hammer," written by Little Rock native Lee Hays and Pete Seeger, became a significant one. In an other irony, Hays and Faubus had both attended Commonwealth College, a socialist school in Polk County. By the 1970s, such message songs like the Staple Singers'"Respect Yourself" and "I'll Take You There," written by Al Bell, and Crittenden County native Johnny Taylor's "I Am Somebody," were making their last stand on the charts.
What has been called "the crisis at Central High" will remain a blot on Arkansas history -- and its sometime comparatively more moderate reputation.
Even with a half-century's distance, many Arkansawyers feel its stigma continues to impede social and economic progress in the city and state.
Still, there are plenty of signs that Arkansas seeks atonement. On the 40th anniversary in 1997, President and former Arkansas governor Bill Clinton and then-governor Mike Huckabee held open the doors of the high school for the Little Rock Nine in attendance.
In 1998, Central High was designated a National Historic Site and became part of the National Park Service. A section of 14th Street in Little Rock running through the school is named for Daisy Bates, who shepherded the nine through the events. Fiftieth anniversary events of 2007 include the issuance of a commemorative silver dollar by the U.S. Mint.
In 2005, artist John Deering -- the man who sculpted the Louis Jordan bust in Brinkley -- and his team installed statues on state capitol grounds of the nine: Minnijean Brown, Elizabeth Eckford, Ernest Green, Thelma Mothershed, Melba Pattillo, Gloria Ray, Terrence Roberts, Jefferson Thomas, and Carlotta Walls.
(Stephen Koch's award-winning "Arkansongs" radio program is syndicated on
National Public Radio affiliates across the state.)
LISTENING:
Why Am I Treated So Bad?- The Staple Singers
Respect Yourself- The Staple Singers
Fables of Faubus- Charles Mingus
I Am Somebody- Johnnie Taylor
If I Had a Hammer- The Weavers
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