Advertising Copy of Superintendent Blossom's Book

Copy of text to be included on the cover of Virgil Blossom's book " It Has Happened Here."-2- This is the man who tells us, in IT HAS HAPPENED HERE, the shocking story of disaster in Little Rock. He describes abominable means whereby a progressive, law-abiding city was demoralized and what amounts to a police state, where free speech has been almost completely stifled, was imposed by a politically ambitious, fanatical minority. The situation at Little Rock was an especially hopeful one at the beginning. Following the Supreme Court ruling of May 1954, Mr. Blossom had worked out a careful and far-seeing plan for gradual integration which had been approved by the school board, the federal courts, and for which he had won the support, group by group, of the majority of the community. But the dissident elements were being worked on and organized by a handful of ruthless extremists and unscrupulous political schemers. Economic black- mail, political blackmail, threats of arson and personal violence were all employed to unite and inflame the opposition. Throughout the late summer of 1957 rumors of mob violence and reprisal boiled. A Chancery judge granted an injunction against integration . A Federal judge overrulled him. On September 2nd, the day before nine Negro students were due to enter Little Rock Central high school, Governor Faubus, urged on by politicians from other parts of Arkansas and the south, called out the National Guard...ostensibly to prevent disorder but actually to prevent integration. The Presidentu a answer was to send in federal troops to protect the Nero children and the integrity of the judicial processes. These dreadful events - from which neither the South nor the Nation has recovered - are reported as they happened and in their full implication for the the future by the man who was most deeply involved. Virgil Blossom here analyzes the southern revolt against integration which culminated in the Little Rock crisis. His far seeing views of how the problem can be solved will be of great interest not only in this country but throughout the world