George's Response to Little Rock School Integration

Individuals and groups of people can and have shaped history in both positive and negative ways. Many individuals throughout history have made decisions that affected mankind gravely, such as Adolf Hitler, and his decisions throughout World War Two, the leader of Japan, bombing Pearl Harbor, causing America to join the war, causing hundreds of thousands of young soldiers to perish. But many individuals and groups throughout history have affected it positively, such as inventions which changed the world for the better.
During the time leading up to the integration of schools in Little Rock, Arkansas, some groups and individuals affected school integration history negatively, while some affected the integration positively. The government of the state of government, the courts, and the governor all affected the integration in a negative way. Governor Orval Faubus ordered, “The state's National Guard to forbid nine black children to enter the Little Rock Central High School.” A crowd of white people opposing the integration of the school gathered to help the National Guard prevent the nine black students from entering the school. Eventually, president Dwight D. Eisenhower “very reluctantly” ordered the state’s National Guard. Due to the incident, the school was closed for the year of the unruly protest, but the next year, the nine black students were able to attend. The nine kids at the center of the unruly protests affected the integration positively. They didn’t give up trying to go to scool, but continued through the crowd. They also did not fight back at the crowds, which I think affected scholl integration history positively.

In the image, there are white people protesting school integration, picketing in a large group, holding signs, some of which say, “Race mixing is communism.” It’s sad how people opposed school integration and how violently they protested. I think that if it were just a few people protesting the integration that the people would not protest, but not oppose the law because they were cowardly. I think many of the school integration protesters protested because many people were opposing the integration and they thought it was ok. It is great that America finally did integrate their schools, but it is sad that it took so long.