President Eisenhower’s Letter to Senator John C. Stennis Explaining Federal Intervention in Little Rock (1957)

Date: October 7, 1957

Created By: Dwight D. Eisenhower

Original or Replica: Original

Era: The Presidency, Civil Rights

Collection: Eisenhower Presidential Library

Citations: DDE’s Records as President, Official File, Box 615, OF 142-A-5-A (7); NAID #17366882

This document is a letter written by President Dwight D. Eisenhower to Senator John C. Stennis of Mississippi on October 7, 1957, in response to the senator’s concerns about the federal government’s actions during the Little Rock Crisis. In the letter, President Eisenhower explains the constitutional basis for his decision to deploy federal troops to Little Rock, Arkansas, and addresses what he believed were misunderstandings about the role of the presidency in enforcing school desegregation.

President Eisenhower emphasizes that federal troops were not sent to Little Rock to promote or oppose school integration. Rather, he argues, they were deployed because state and local authorities had failed to enforce federal court orders and maintain public order after the Arkansas National Guard and local officials were unable or unwilling to protect the judicial process. Eisenhower warns that allowing mob rule or defiance of federal court decisions would threaten the constitutional system and ultimately endanger the nation. He also assures Senator Stennis that he remains willing to consult with Southern leaders but reiterates that the Executive Branch has a constitutional obligation to support and enforce the lawful orders of the federal courts—not to determine the nation’s desegregation policy, which had been established by the judiciary.