The Charlotte News
Thursday, September 26, 1957
THREE EDITORIALS
Site Ed. Note: The front page reports from Newport, R.I., that the President this date had arranged a conference in Washington for the following Tuesday with a committee of Southern governors who were seeking withdrawal of the Federal troops from Little Rock, Ark. White House press secretary James Hagerty announced that the President would return to Washington from Newport for the meeting with five Southern governors who had requested the conference in a message to the President the previous day. Governor LeRoy Collins of Florida was the co-chairman of the committee along with North Carolina Governor Luther Hodges. In a responsive telegram, the President spoke more broadly of integration problems in general, and Mr. Hagerty indicated that it probably meant that he wanted to expand the scope of the discussion at the conference. The Southern Governors Conference had adopted at Sea Island, Ga., a resolution saying: "The situation in Little Rock is a matter of grave concern. It is imperative that a constructive solution be found." It went on to propose the conference with the President and Governor Orval Faubus of Arkansas to seek the withdrawal of the Federal troops from Little Rock "at the earliest possible moment".
In Raleigh, Governor Hodges said at a press conference this date that the sole purpose of the conference with the President would be to seek the withdrawal of the Federal troops, indicating that they were hopeful of success. He said that sending in the Federal troops to Little Rock had been a "tragic mistake" and that he was sorry that the President felt it necessary. He said that it was not a question of segregation or integration but rather what would happen to any state in the future when such situations or other situations would arise.
Associated Press correspondent Relman Morin reports from Little Rock that the nine black students had returned to Central High School this date in a guarded Army convoy, passing through a line of bayonets, walking inside the school while being observed in silence by hundreds of white students. One boy shouted half-heartedly, "Boo," the only sound which was uttered. There were no crowds outside the school this date as paratroopers from the 101st Airborne Division continued to man their stations around the school. They had little to do this date, picking up one man whom the police identified as a second lieutenant attached to Lackland Air Force Base in San Antonio, Tex., indicating that he was carrying a .38-caliber revolver in a shoulder holster and had a .30-.30 rifle in the trunk of his car, which he had parked about a quarter block from the high school. Earlier, the troops had escorted a white girl who was weeping bitterly from the school to a parked automobile. According to a male student with her, she was just tired and wanted to go home, asked that they be left alone. The schools superintendent said that attendance at the high school had risen to 1,350 this date, 100 more than the previous day, indicating that enrollment had increased at the other two Little Rock high schools as well. He said that he thought they would let the figures speak for themselves. It meant that about 650 pupils were absent from Central.
In New York, ABC announced that it would carry an address this night by Governor Faubus, to be televised and broadcast by radio nationally at 9:00.
Excerpts from the editorial in The News the previous day, condemning the President's action in deploying the Army troops to Little Rock, calling it a "tragic and grievous blunder", had been quoted on the CBS television news program, "Douglas Edwards and the News", the previous evening. Other newspapers quoted during the program were the Richmond Times-Dispatch, the Atlanta Constitution and the Miami Herald.
In Washington, Teamsters vice-president Jimmy Hoffa requested this date that the Senate Select Committee investigating misconduct in labor and management delay any further testimony by him until after the Teamsters convention the following week in Miami Beach.
Before the Committee this date, witnesses testified that two
union officials, Charles O'Brien
The editorial page is here. "Troops Must Go & Leaders Must Lead", in much the same vein as the editorial of the previous day, indicates that the Federal troops had to be removed from Little Rock, that the Southern governors during their meeting on Tuesday with the President had to make it clear that they would put down mobs whenever they gathered to inhibit integration, and that the President needed to make clear that Federal intervention would be sanctioned only as a last resort when all other means had been exhausted and after due warning was given. It finds the situation in Little Rock to have been the result of a breakdown in leadership at both the state and Federal levels.
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