Army Situation Report Documents Continued Military Protection and Racial Tensions at Little Rock Central High School (1958)

Date: February 27, 1958

Created By: The Office of the Deputy Chief of Staff for Military Operations

Original or Replica: Original

Era: The Presidency, Civil Rights

Collection: Eisenhower Presidential Library

Citations: Office of the Staff Secretary, Subject Series, Alphabetical Subseries, Box 17, Little Rock Vol. I—Reports (8); NAID #17367516

This February 27, 1958 confidential U.S. Army situation report provides an update on conditions at Little Rock Central High School during the continuing integration crisis. The report records that eight Black students attended Central High that day, although Carlotta Walls arrived approximately two hours after school opened for reasons that were unknown to military officials. It also details the continued deployment of the 153rd Infantry, with one platoon stationed at Central High during school hours and additional troops maintained on alert at Camp Robinson.

The report also describes a significant confrontation involving Sammie Dean Parker, a white student who had been involved in opposition to integration. The previous evening, Superintendent Virgil Blossom and two other school officials met with Parker and her parents. As Assistant Principal Elizabeth Huckaby left the meeting, Parker reportedly verbally and physically attacked her. School officials separated Huckaby from the Parkers until they departed. Following the incident, Blossom indicated that he would strongly recommend to the Little Rock School Board that Parker be permanently expelled.

Although brief, the document demonstrates that racial tensions and disciplinary problems at Central High continued well into 1958. It also shows that months after the dramatic events of September 1957, federalized military forces remained involved in maintaining security while school administrators confronted continuing resistance to integration.