Inside Story of Little Rock - Page 13

Article in U.S. News and World Report based on excerpts from Hays' book A Southern Moderate SpeaksInside Story of Little Rock . . ."In August the President had said . . . that he could not conceive of a situation in which he would send federal troops into a State to enforce integration orders" police could handle the situation, the Governor replied: "I wouldn't want to say. I don't want to say anything which might tend to be construed to be inflammatory." When asked if he believed there would be violence at the school, however, he answered, "I think so." Henry Woods, law partner of former Governor Sid McMath, called me on Sunday to say that the mayor wanted my advice in regard to his effort to maintain order at Central High the next morning-assuming that the Negro students would try to enroll. Would I please come back out to Woods's home for a conference? I was not sure I should go. It might draw me into the orbit of political opposition to Governor Faubus, and I was trying hard to escape involvement in the feud which had developed between McMath and the Governor. McMath and the mayor were apparently collaborating in plans that at least appeared to the public to have political overtones. I asked Virgil Blossom what to do. "You should see the mayor," he said, and he agreed to go with me. His advice was based on the realization that, with the National Guard withdrawn, if violence threatened the next day, any hope of preserving peace would depend upon local police and such other help as the mayor could muster. Still we were eager not to be publicly identified with political interests, so we made no public announcement of our destination when we left the hotel. "Plans for Protecting Negroes" When we entered the living room of the Woods home, we found, in addition to Woods and the mayor, Governor McMath, Ed Dunaway, McMath's close friend and Winthrop Rockefeller's attorney, and Harry Ashmore. The purpose of their conferring, it developed, was to make plans for protecting the Negro students should they appear at the school. No one seemed to know what their intentions were. I was determined not to make any contacts with the NAACP officials, either national or local. I disagreed with their tactics and, in the Little Rock situation, I could not even discuss the question with them without appearing to approve projection of the national organization into Little Rock's difficulties. I knew only one NAACP official, and I had assumed that he had had nothing to do with NAACP's pressures on the school board. This official was their lobbyist, Clarence Mitchell, whose attitudes and actions had always appeared, in the few contacts I had had with him, to be honorable. One can oppose, as I do, the national organization's strategy and still believe strongly in their right to function as an agent of their people's interests, just as I believe that White Citizens Councils should not be prevented by court procedures or otherwise from holding meetings or propagating their views. The risks of our governmental system include freedom for organizations to function, even when their methods and objectives are distasteful. These organizations are creatures of freedom. In the meeting at the Woods residence I do not recall that Governor Faubus was mentioned. It was assumed that the obligation for policing rested on Mayor Mann. I was asked about the White House or Justice Department plans for supplementing local police facilities, but I could bring very little light to bear on that question. I knew, of course, as many others did that the Department of Justice had not approved use of deputy marshals. We discussed the propriety of using the Marine Corps Reserve component in Little Rock-most of whose members were local veterans and enrollees. Another possibility discussed was a request to be made of Lieutenant Governor Gordon to appeal for federal military assistance in suppressing a riot if real trouble should develop. Also one of the group mentioned that a small assignment of the Air Force Military Police, based 12 miles away, might be sufficient if they were legally available. In August the President had said in a news conference in Washington that he could not conceive of a situation in which he would send federal troops into a State to enforce integration orders. For this reason, perhaps little thought had been given by anyone to the use of outside federal troops to supplement local forces. Troops at Camp Chaffee, Ark., may have been mentioned in this conference, but they were not thought of as importations, and anyway a request of the State government, temporarily under Lieutenant Governor Gordon's direction, for help was regarded as a condition to federal military assistance. There were many precedents for such help. I am sure that no one in the group at that moment anticipated the dramatic and frightening appearance of paratroopers at Central High School within 60 hours. To be sure, Harry Ashmore had persisted in the opinion that the Federal Administration should consider no other military action than federalizing the National Guard and instructing them to comply with court orders. With the withdrawal at Christmastime of the last paratroopers, that is exactly what we had in Little Rock. To all appearances, this mayor's conference on Sunday was for the sole purpose of laying plans to prevent violence. The bitterest opponent of Mayor Mann could have found nothing to condemn in his expressed purposes, unless one wanted violence for the accomplishment of a desired end. No one in the group knew what Daisy Bates of the local NAACP proposed to do, and no one volunteered to advise her. The suggestion was made that Thurgood Marshall, representing the national NAACP, might still be in Little Rock and if contacted might be induced to counsel the nine to stay away for a few days. If the decision had been left with the mayor's group that day, I believe they would have said, "Let them start tomorrow-a delay will give time to the extremists to build up for another demonstration and we will really have trouble." I had no strong opinion-the situation was so ominous that I merely wished the counsel of numbers. I agreed to use my Washington contacts to locate Thurgood Marshall in case it was decided that someone should seek his aid in averting disaster. This required more than one call, but I finally got his phone number in Richmond, Va. I did not call him and to my knowledge no others of the group did. The mayor's deportment that Sunday was above criticism. Here was the greatest crisis he had ever faced, and as a "lame duck" he lacked the confidence of the people. I felt sorry for him. A Request for U. S. Deputies In the late afternoon of that Sunday, Virgil Blossom met me in the Sam Peck lobby with this question: "Should I talk with Judge Davies about the necessity of having 130 U. S. NEWS & WORLD REPORT, March 23, 195