Senator John Stennis Urges Eisenhower to End Forced School Integration (1957)

Date: October 1, 1957

Created By: John Stennis

Original or Replica: Original

Era: Civil Rights, The Presidency

Collection: Eisenhower Presidential Library

Citations: DDE’s Records as President, Official File, Box 615, OF 142-A-5-A (4); NAID #17366868

This telegram was sent by U.S. Senator John C. Stennis of Mississippi to President Dwight D. Eisenhower on October 1, 1957, during the height of the Little Rock Crisis. Written only days after Eisenhower deployed federal troops to enforce the integration of Little Rock Central High School, Stennis argues that the administration’s actions had created the nation’s most serious domestic crisis and urges the President to reconsider the federal government’s approach to school desegregation.

Stennis contends that opposition to federally enforced integration was widespread among Southern parents of both races and maintains that compulsory integration threatened the future of public education. He argues that traditions of racial separation could not be eliminated through court orders or military force and recommends that Eisenhower appoint advisory groups of Southern citizens to provide alternative perspectives before making additional decisions regarding school integration.