Free Republic

A generational struggle is underway. What's so unusual is it's taking place within a single generation [Obama] represents a new generation of leadership, even though technically he's part of the same generation as Hillary, the baby boomers. Here's where it gets a bit complicated. This tussle pits an Early Boomer vs. a Late Boomer, and the two cohorts have little in common... In the case of boomers—those born between 1946 and 1964—the whole frame is wrong. It's based on birthrates, not common cultural and political affinities... Worse, the Early Boomer sensibility gets all the attention. Five decades of newsmagazine boomer...

After getting the Supreme Court of Earl Warren on its side, the NAACP legal team rolled from victory to victory including changing the bus seating rules in Montgomery, Alabama and integrating Little Rock Central High School in 1957. Martin Luther King was embarking on an economic boycott and civil disobedience path while the NAACP would continue its efforts in the federal court system to integrate southern educational institutions including the Meredith vs. Fair case involving the University of Mississippi. President Eisenhower and the GOP hoped that their intervention in the Little Rock case would keep northern black votes in the...

They weren't out to make history, the eight young engineers who met secretly with investor Arthur Rock 50 years ago to form Silicon Valley's ancestral chip company, Fairchild Semiconductor. The men, among them future Intel co-founder Gordon Moore, mainly wanted to escape their brilliant but batty boss, William Shockley, who had just shared the 1956 Nobel Prize in physics for his role in the invention of the transistor. Shockley, who had started a company in Mountain View in 1955 to commercialize this breakthrough, had bullied and browbeaten his young engineering staff, whose numbers included future venture capitalist Eugene Kleiner, at...

A thousand soldiers ringed the Little Rock Central High School on Wednesday morning September 25, 1957. White students who wanted to go to class went in, but many stayed away. Major General Edwin Walker, commander of the troops, addressed students in the auditorium shortly after school began. General Walker said: "Those who interfere.....with the proper administration of the school will be removed by the soldiers...." An Army staff car (a station wagon with U.S. Army markings on its sides) came to the home of NAACP president Daisy Bates to take the nine students to school. They arrived at 9:22 AM....

Nine black students entered Little Rock Central High School on Monday September 23, 1957. They attended the first three periods of the school day before being removed at noon. One student told reporters: "nothing much happened." But outside a crowd of more than one thousand people erupted into acts of violence as police repeatedly pushed them back from the school. Windows at the school were broken. Two black reporters were attacked by the mob with cameras clicking and rolling. The Little Rock police had some help from Arkansas State Police but they left at noon (the same time the students...

Federal District Judge Ronald Davies opened a contempt hearing on Friday morning September 20th, 1957 with four lawyers representing Arkansas Governor Orval Faubus putting up objections. But they failed to move Judge Davies and the lawyers walked out of the hearing in the middle of the day. The chairman of the Democrat Party in Arkansas put out a statement saying that Judge Davies and other federal courts had no right to question the judgement of Governor Faubus and National Guard leaders. Governor Faubus, who was not present at the hearing, told reporters "now begins the crucifixion." Later in the day...

On Sunday September 15th Governor Faubus put out the word that he had made proposals to President Eisenhower and that the National Guard would remain at the school for now. The crowds of pro-segregationists began to dwindle the week of Monday September 16th. The whole controversy brought national news media to the scene including the developing network television news operations. NBC sent John Chancellor from Chicago to report live from in front of the school. Meanwhile CBS had Howard K. Smith, who has just come back from London to head up its Washington bureau. Live transmissions were by long-distance phone...

With Federal District Judge Ronald Davies moving for an injunction against Arkansas Governor Orval Faubus the burden of enforcing any injunction would fall on the Eisenhower Administration. President Eisenhower later spoke of his regret in making Earl Warren Chief Justice of the Supreme Court but for now it was his job and the job of his Attorney General Herbert Brownell to enforce desegregation of schools. There was political gain for the Republican Party with a majority of black votes going to Eisenhower in 1956. Democrat Congressman Brooks Hays of Arkansas was acting as an intermediary between the president and the...

President Sends Troops to Little Rock, Federalizes Arkansas National Guard; Tells Nation He Acted to Avoid An Anarchy Eisenhower on Air Says School Defiance Has Gravely Harmed Prestige of U.S. President Warns of Anarchy Peril Washington, Sept. 24--President Eisenhower sent Federal troops to Little Rock, Ark., today to open the way for the admission of nine Negro pupils to Central High School. Earlier, the President federalized the Arkansas National Guard and authorized calling the Guard and regular Federal forces to remove obstructions to justice in Little Rock school integration. His history-making action was based on a formal finding that his...

The National Guard blocked entrance to black students and even the black employees who cooked and cleaned at Little Rock Central High School. Daily crowds of pro-segregation people gathered outside the school to make sure the black students didn't go in. Governor Orval Faubus sent his evidence to the White House of the need for the guard to prevent violence. A cross was burned on the front lawn of Little Rock Mayor Woodrow Mann, who had disputed the governor's contention that violence was possible if the school was integrated. The school board went to Federal District Judge Ronald Davies to...

Federal District Judge Ronald Davies (imported from North Dakota to rule on integration in Little Rock) ordered integration of Little Rock Central High School to proceeed on Setpember 3rd. The next morning, nine black students attempted to enter the Little Rock Central High School but were turned away by the National Guard troops there. As Governor Faubus had expected, a large pro-segregation crowd stood outside the school and they jeered as the students were rebuffed. Eight of the nine students were in a group led by Arkansas NAACP president Daisy Bates. One student, Elizabeth Eckford, whom Bates could not reach...

When Governor Orval Faubus met with Arthur Caldwell of the Justice Department in late August, Faubus expressed resentment of the fact that states had to enforce integration against popular will. Faubus received a constant barrage of protest from those opposed to integration and he feared that opposition would lead to violence. He said he expected hundreds of segregation supporters to descend upon Little Rock to violently resist integration. As I've noted before, governors are elected every two years in Arkansas and how Orval Faubus handled the integration of Little Rock Central High School would most likely determine his ability to...

BBC Schedules Week of Pro-Gay Programs to Commemorate 1957 Sodomy Legalization By Meg Jalsevac BRITAIN, August 31, 2007 (LifeSiteNews.com) - In conjunction with the beginning of the LBGT History Month in the UK, the BBC has scheduled a week long roster of pro-homosexual television for its viewers.  The programming was scheduled in the first week of September to also coincide with the 50th anniversary of the release of the Wolfenden Report which legalized homosexuality in Britain in 1957. The week long extravaganza of gay-themed TV has been officially named the 'Hidden Lives Series'.  The programming will range from movies with...

Federal District Judge Ronald Davies, transferred to the federal courthouse in Little Rock, dealt quickly with the state court ruling against the integration of Little Rock Central High School. NAACP lawyers filed an appeal of the August 27th injunction from the Cancery Court of Pulaski County. On Friday August 30th, 1957 Judge Davies overruled the state court and ordered the integration to proceed according to the plan of the Little Rock School Board. Davies issued an injunction enjoining "all persons, in any manner, directly or indirectly, from interfering with the plan of integration as approved by the United States District...

Special Message to the Congress on the Middle East Situation January 5, 1957 [Delivered in person before a joint Session] To the Congress of the United States: First may I express to you my deep appreciation of your courtesy in giving me, at some inconvenience to yourselves, this early opportunity of addressing you on a matter I deem to be of grave importance to our country. In my forthcoming State of the Union Message, I shall review the international situation generally. There are worldwide hopes which we can reasonably entertain, and there are worldwide responsibilities which we must carry to...

Various actions dealing with integration plans for Little Rock Central High School were filed in state courts during the summer of 1957. Some parents sought the right to send their children to segregated schools that would remain in Little Rock and others sought to nullify the Central High School integration plan. The plan was supported by federal district and appeals court rulings, but many state laws had been passed calling for imposition of any federal order. Public meetings were also held in opposition to the integration plan. One lawsuit reached the Cancery Court in Pulaski County on August 27th, 1957....

When one is trying to advance a case in court, you have to have a plantiff with a good image. Lawyers at the NAACP achieved a major victory when the Warren Supreme Court came down with the Brown vs. Board of Education ruling. Now there were opportunities to use federal judicial power to overrule state segregation laws through lawsuits. In 1955 a number of people defied bus segregation in Montgomery, Alabama. But until seamstress and local member Rosa Parks came along, the NAACP stayed out of court. Earlier cases involved people who had bad reputations or who might break under...

The novel that launched the Beats, the hippies and designer jeans turns 50. But this legendary 'joyride' is actually the saddest book you'll ever read—even with God on every page. Jack Kerouac's "On The Road" gets the full 50th anniversary treatment next month, and both cheerleaders and hand-wringers acknowledge that it radically changed American culture—somehow or other. True, the National Quiet Desperation Index has only risen since 1957, and if the book's exaltation of junker cars and diner food had really taken hold, we'd have fewer SUVs and fast-food franchises. But "On the Road" showed, and continues to show, generations...

School Then 1957 vs School Now 2007 1. Scenario: Jack goes quail hunting before school, pulls into school parking lot with shotgun in gun rack. 1957 - Vice principal comes over to look at Jack's shotgun. He goes to his car and gets his shotgun to show Jack. 2007 - School goes into lock down, and FBI is called. Jack is hauled off to jail and never sees his truck or gun again. Counselors called in for traumatized students and teachers. 2. Scenario: Johnny and Mark get into a fistfight after school. 1957 - Crowd gathers. Mark wins. Johnny and...

Racial integration in the early part of the last century was very much a personal moral decision that involved no rules or laws to force it. If one chose to be in the company of other races it was a personal decision because legally speaking segregation was the "law of the land" at least in the mind of those who accept "stare indecisis" as their principle. When one chose to integrate it was very much a personal moral decision with laws not coming into play. Ronald Reagan related a story in his writings of his mother bringing a black basketball...