well. and these soldiers who thanks to his effort and saw the wisdom in what he was urging impressed general pat tant with their dedication in world war ii. so he was very much -- president eisenhower was very much ahead of the curve. anybody who wasn't aware of that certainly had reason to figure that out pretty quick legal during his administration. i want to -- because i want to get to the questions and discussion, i just want to focus, as i said, on the judicial appointment. dr. speck mentioned some of the crucial judicial appointments who served with great courage. my father reminded me that the support services who worked on that staff and quite often

risked their lives, the clients would try to live their lives in the communities, the lawyers would come and go, the clients and the judges who were trying to protect and vindicate the rights of these clien the same kind of indignities, these judges that president eisenhower put on the court displayed remarkable dedication and courage. let me tell you a list of some of the decisions that judge frank johnson issued and as a federal district judge, at least for the first part of his judicial career, he had a full docket of difficult cases. so the list of decisions that i'm going to describe to you are

just a small fraction of his contribution to our society. judge johnson invalidated tuskogee, alabama, and ordered that black persons be registered to vote if their 578 indication papers were equal in performance of the least qualified white applicant. he ordered the city of montgomery, alabama, to render its city voting to the department of justice. he required alabama to apportion state legislative district to adhere to the one-man, one-vote principle. he mandated in alabama the first statewide desegregation of public schools. i can continue through a list here of the contributions that this one judge courageously did. it's quite clear to me that president eisenhower with the

good counsel, particularly with the attorney general, had no surprises in mind when he made his appointments. he knew the positions of these individuals in whom he entrusted these powers. bill moyer described judge johnson as -- and said that he altered forever the face of the south. burke marshall who served in the kennedy justice department said that these four judges, dr. speck mentioned them, including judge johnson, have made as much on american society and american law that the supreme court has ever done in history. if you look at these kinds of appointments and the consistency that president eisenhower put on the court, it's no surprise that someone like earl warren was put

in charge of the chief justice of the supreme court. i have my theory about where the tension came from but dr. specht did a wonderful job of explaining the context and i want to give you an idea of what our court system was like during this period. my father's mentor was a man by the name of charles hamilton houston who became dean of howard law school where he mentored my father and a number of lawyers in the civil rights unit. he was clearly a brilliant thinker and tremendous law student at harvard. to give you a clue as to how much of a pioneer and how brilliant this man was, in 1935, he gave a speech that we recently founded at the library

of congress where he laid out the entire foundation. that's 1935. this was not a man to be trifled with. i mention that because of the context of the court system that president eisenhower did so much to change. he went before the supreme court in 1938 and argued a case to get a gentleman admitted to the mississippi law school. rather than listen to a black man argue he turned his chair around. so if you look at that with the quality of the people that president eisenhower put on the bench, it's just remarkable to

me and i think and it bears noticing that if there's one thing in closing that i would say that i picked up from reading from most of the ambrose books, it is that general eisenhower and president eisenhower sought out people with tremendous courage. for those who worked immediately with him, they worked with him in tremendous ways. for those who were a step or two removed, it's very clear that the example of his service guided them. so it's been quite clear to me that he made a remarkable contribution to our nation's history when it comes to a number of things, but in particular on civil rights. so i look forward to the

discussion. >> okay. thank you, dr. specht. especially the line from the students. you have no idea what those things cost me. it's always good being back at ike. this is like a second home and i'm inspired when i walk on campus. and to be able to sit next a gentleman like this and hear his words, that's just gold. my talk today is going to be an echo of how dr. specht started her talk. because if you want to talk about little rock, the first things you've got to do is get right with ike and getting right with ike is hard to do. i mean, maybe the real ike i don't know.

what we're going to try to do here today is we're going to try to get right with ike. and then the crisis itself. i said "we" which means that this is not a spectator event. right? i want you to think through this with me. i don't have all the answers. trust me. but think through this with me and i would hope you would also try to do an assessment, based on the things that dr. marshall said and you try to get right with ike. he's a man in motion. he was always a man in motion. he's still a man in motion. listen to this. in 1962 poll, asked 75 presidential scholars to rank order the chief executives. washington right up to eisenhower based on their greatness. of the 31 presidents raided, dwight d. eisenhower ranked

21st. he was tied with ched arthur, just above andrew johnson. most of them would agree with the presidential scholar who said eisenhower would be remembered primarily as a man who single mindedly leaved the day to day administration of his office to trust subordinates like sherman adams. over the past 50 years, however, these earlier assessments of eisenhower as a well meaning but bumbling political novice has been challenged # drawing on a collection of rouds like right here at the eisenhower and personal eisenhower revisionists in which the president emerges as an executive to led the nation with a strong hand and a clear vig. the new scholarship has enhanced

ike's reputation dramatically. in 1980, a new poll modeled on that t he then in 1990 slipped to 15. but in 2010, last year, s ichie college research poll ike had slipped back to the top ten. the revisionists have focused on ike in the foreign policy sphere. they have not focused as much on ike in the domestic sphere. now, if you try to do ike in civil rights, you readily understand why that is. it sometimes can be just maddening. who's the real ike here? who's the real guy?

some people have argued that eisenhower met civil rights reform with ambivalence if not outright opposition. they say that he failed to develop comprehensive policies and strategies required to implement school desegregation in the south. it was this failure some revisionists explain was what erupted in little rock. there's no debating this scholar's assumption that eisenhower was less than enthusiastic in his order of school desegregation. but what i will suggest here today is that their claim that the president's failure resulted from an overriding opposition to civil rights is wrong. i will argue it was wrong and i will argue that it was wrong when they did not end the

desegregation. i think they missed the mark completely. my main thing, that a close examination of the president's personal and public correspondence and actionses reveals that his approach to all civil rights issues eisenhower adhered to a precisely defined strategy. it was based on two things. first, his own personal review on race. also on his deeply held belief that, of course, emphasized moderation and gradualism will prove the racial equality and at the same time maintaining a law & order in the affected areas. . a little bit more about this strategy. this strategy of moderation and gradualists had served eisenhower well. not only through his administration but as a military man. you'll recall ike, monty, and so on. it served him very well. but it will prove completely and

adequate to the new set of challenges that developed following the supreme court ruling in brown v. board. eisenhower's inability to achieve the objectives that he sought will end the little rock crisis and that crisis will result, i maintain, directly from his failure to tailor that strategy to maintain the challenges that he faces in brown. of course, it's got to begin with president's personal, personal racial views. we've talked a little bit about it. as you know, ike was born in texas. he grew into manhood right here in texas. the population of both states was predominantly white but surprisingly to me when i read this, there was a large black population when ike was growing

up in abilene. the schools were integrated and it was here that the future president first displayed what would be a lifelong aversion to big tree. when a high school coach harassed and then dismissed a black athlete from the football team, team captain eisenhower told the coach, if he can't play, i won't play either. other players lined up behind ike, the coach reinstated the black player. however, the fact that eisenhower was no bigot, you're going to hear that word "but" and "however," that did not mean that he rejected the commonly held racial views of his day. upon graduation from west point, he entered the u.s. army, a u.s. army that remained segregated for nearly all of his four decades-plus of service. black soldiers, as mr. marshall

pointed out, were generally unfit for combat duty and denied training in any about the most rudimentary skills. eisenhower did not challenge these practicing during world war ii and when questioned immediately after the war about possibly integrating the army, he responded with the state that would become the cornerstone of his civil rights policy, a statement that dr. specht quoted earlier. laws forcing someone to like someone else, we're going to get into a lot of trouble. by the end of his military career, general eisenhower, however, was overseen, as we heard, the final portions of the integration of the armed forces. and when asked what he thought about that, ike expressed the hope that, quote, the human race

may finally grow up to the point where it, race relalgss, will relations, will not be a problem. depending on what you wanted to see in eisenhower, you could find it. you could look at eisenhower's personal remarks, for example, and say, there goes a fair-going crisis. the presidential speechwriter, arson, eisenhower explained that his support for black political ee economic equality did not mean that he thought the races should mix, mix socially or that, quote, a negro should date my daughter. when he returned from golfing trips, he would regale the family with golfing jokes. he warned the views of the deseg gre gragsists and said that all

they are concerned about is to see that their sweet little girls are not required to sit alongside a big, overgrown negro. but it's troubling. i'm telling you, but, as these examples may be, they have to be balanced against the many statements and actions that indicated that ike did truly favor political and economic equality for blacks. typical of these pronouncements was a letter to the famous editor of the atlanta constitution, ralph, which in the which emphasized the high cost of discrimination until america has achieved reality and the concept of individual dignity and equality before the law, he wrote, we will not have become completely worthy of our limitless opportunities. eisenhower sum mentioned these statements to make blacks more

visible, the highest levels of government. he askeded a damgs, seek out qualified blacks. bring them in. frank snow, howard university, was named to italy, earnest wilkins became assistant secretary of labor and the most significant posting. they have argued that this is just symbolic. but this is the thing that you cannot argue with. black faces appeared where none had ever been before. the important skis dissting that must be noted that while eisenhower clear and unwavering there's endorsement to social equality was weak and in revealing letter to the republican national committee

presidential committee chairman meal, eisenhower suggested that one of the guiding doctors of the republican party should be, quote, equality of all citizens before the law. meaning the political and economic right of no citizen should be jeopardized because of his race or his religion. the obligation. law was to protect social rights. but in ike's view, those words were opened to interpretation and debate. the president believed that he was addressing the most important concerns of blacks. as sherman adams related one time, eisenhower told me that he disagreed with his southern friends that negro were primarily seeking social equality. eisenhower believed that the

negro was more anxious for an equal chance for a job and good education, equal justice before the law, equal right to vote. the president was certain then that he possessed a full appreciation of the aspirations of the negro and he also believed that he had to find the best policy for achieving those goals. eisenhower's policy, the president's strategy for whatever goals, he saw reflected his core blefs. eisenhower, first and last was a man of moderation. he characterized his approach to problems as the policy of the middle way and he was utterly convinced that this policy offered the greatest chance for the successful resolution of the difficult problems that surrounded school desegregation. the most important tenant of

this policy of the middle way was the avoidance of the political problem of our time is to find and stay on the path that marks the way of logic between conflicting arguments advanced by extremists of both sides and that will solve, he said, almost every problem that arises. an impartial judge who prevented confrontations of reasonable men the second tenant of moderation concerned the proper role of government in resolving emotional issues. eisenhower was a firm blefr in limited government and he was extremely skeptical that

advocated the use of law or force to solve fundamental what he called human problems. the third tenet of the policy was caution. gradualism, said eisenhower, in all things. gradualism. give the parties a chance to accept and become comfortable with proposed settlements. and the final component of eisenhower's policy was his preference for minimizing his personal role in any solution that was divine. this was accomplished, as you've heard in dr. specht's talks, by arranging private meetings with persons concerned, by sending emissaries in the president's name, very low-key, behind the scenes. what greenspan called the hidden hand presidency. it was this policy of moderation

around the principles of gradualism, caution, minimum government intrusion which eisenhower believed would offer the best sense, best chance, in other words, of solving the difficult problem of desegregation. seeing eisenhower do this, many civil rights activists hoped that it would now be directed towards ending desegregation throughout the country but they would be disappointed. the same rationale would preclude him from launching segregation in the schools of the individual strengths. eisenhower knew the real battles over segregation of the school systems would occur in the deep

south. and aum though he often stated based on race, color, or creed is morally wrong, he also acknowledged that the desegregation of public schools in the south would entail very serious practical problems, not the least of which is what eisenhower talked about deep-seeded emotions of the persons in the region. the eisenhower administration did a little to challenge school segregation in the south. i do not believe he wrote in his diary in 1953 that prejudice will succumb to federal law imposed on our states in such a way to bring about conflict of the police powers of the states and the nation which set back the cause of racial progress and race relations in this nation for a long, long time.

how, then, was the fight for equality to proceed? eisenhower provided his solution in a letter to his friend, governor names burn and a means might be found whereby all parties involved in the segregation debate could progressively work towards the goals established by be a straukt principle and at the same time would not cause such destruction and mental anguish that any progress would be reversed. the statement was in coordination with ike's policy of moderation. he refused to be pinned to a specific date when segregation would end. he was asked one time, how long will this take? eisenhower answered, quote, the length of time i am not even going to talk about. i don't know anything about the length of time it will take.

ice enhaur felt that he would be give and then time for gradual lichl, for the policy of moderation. he was wrong and he found that out on 17th of may. with the ruling, ike's time ran out. in spite of his presidential assertions that he agreed with the unanimous decision, eisenhower believed that they had vastly overstepped their authority. he railed against the stupidity i am convinced that the supreme

court will set back in the south by 15 years. the president knew that most white southerners would oppose brown and as he wrote to his friend, laws are rarely effective unless they represent the will of the majority. when pressed on his personal decision of the court's decision, he would simply say that it was a ruling of the law of the land and as president he was i inquired to enforce it. most telling, however, the president steadfastly refused # to endorse the decision of the court and more importantly to speak out on the immorality of segregation. as press secretary james hagerty later remembered after brown, he said after brown, civil rights became a whole different ball game indeed it did.

and it was a game that would result in the confrontation at the little rock school desegregation crisis. and in that crisis, eisenhower's policy, his trusted policy of moderation to prove inadequately. he sough to stop any profile announcements four times during the crisis. he dispatched personal arkansas and to gather information and breach the differences between the state and national governments and repeatedly refused advice from subordinary nats or even forceful measures to resolve the crisis and sought to provide as much time as he could to become comfortable with koord mandated desegregation. and the end, of course, the ruling of the court was

implemented only after the president ordered the 101st to occupy the city of little rock. so what happened? what happened? why did the policy that served ike so far in other foreign and domestic physical challenges fail him so completely at little rock? there are many answers to this question, of course. economic, political, certainly social. but one reason that i think is often ignored and it shouldn't be, that wung reason oroville eugene he was the governor of arkansas and was the person with whom ike would predominantly interact. but in that interaction ike underestimated oroville. orville was a master