there were no more new school buildings built for black folks after may 17th, 1954 than any time in the history of the country. all of that, you know, is what you're processing, so the way that limb rock was a series -- was a challenge from the state naacp daisy bates, and there's a documentary that i think public television has been doing on mrs. bates, but the moment came that i had a chance to say that i wanted to transfer. i wanted to transfer because you saw this huge building. you passed it every day. you knew that i came out of a family of teachers, and they always complained about the resources that central had as compared to what we had, the hand-me-down books, so -- and i figured i wanted to get the best college education i could, so if i want to central, and they had more of what we wanted to have, that this was going to be a good thing.

the summer occurs, and it's kind of bumping along, and i get an invitation, my mother and i, to go down to the superintendent's office to indicate that i've been accepted as one of the students to transfer to central that fall. i thought it was going to be a fairly quiet day. and up until -- and so did most people in little rock, and the night before school was to open, the good governor orville faubus comes on television and says that he's calling out the national guard to keep us out of school. and i'm thinking oh, my goodness, you know, i'm a senior.

i want to graduate, and i'm walking into this huge unknown. and that first day the pictures on the brochure of elizabeth and the mob behind her, it dawned on me that maybe this was something other than my going to school, that there's some other issues going on here, and that i said i wanted to be a part of the change in the south. well, my moment came. and for three weeks, in fact, most people didn't think eisenhower was going to step forward and do anything. i don't think up until the last

month we were talking earlier, i had an opportunity to sit with herbert brownell back in the '80s, we were at the eisenhower -- eisenhower library. and i said, you know, eisenhower really didn't need to send 1,000 paratroopers with the 101st airborne. he could have sent 50, 100 or 200, that they would have done the job, but he said that eisenhower, he had just won world war ii, he was the president of a major university without a phd. he was the darling of both political parties to be the standard bearer for president and he wanted to show faubus who was in charge that he was tired of having the second-rate governor, as he saw him, push him around, and -- and so on the 25th of september when they finally sent the troops, and we went to school with, you know, a convoy of jeeps and army, station wagons and helicopters

flying over, you got the feeling that you would get into school that day. but -- but -- but i -- i -- i think, again, unintended consequences that that was really, at left in my mind, the first time that the federal government had really stepped forward to support that decision and to show african-american communities that they were uphold their rights, so when i bumped into people like john lewis and others, you know, they said little rock was an important part of their consciousness, so each of these steps and places became, you know, kind of stepping stones. one led to the other, and we never expected, any of us, the nine of us, that what we were doing was -- was going to be earth-shattering and that 56 years later i'm still talking about getting to high school. but the -- the interest of all nine of us was really to pursue the best education, public education we thought that was our right, and we had came from families that education was important and that they thought we had the right to be there. >> right.

>> and that that was really what i think eisenhower -- i never had a chance to meet him, never, you know, looked beyond that year of the presidential politics, but one important thing was at my graduation, there was a young minister from montgomery, alabama, speaking in pine bluff, arkansas, and the night that i graduated, dr. king came up, sat with my family and was in the audience, so, you know, this -- all of this connection -- connectivity of the charlene story and others, and we all, you know, were doing our individual thing, trying to improve what we thought was the best options for us. >> now understanding it's 56 years later and you have the benefit of hindsight, let's go

back to your young self and for history sake in this conference you have to answer the question of were you frightened? >> sure, i was fright new england. >> now there's a situation that now all these troops are up to protect. >> you we weren't frightened. we were frightened on the side of the unknown. when the governor called out the national guard to keep us out, yeah, we were frightened, and -- and the unknown was, you know, will i complete school that year? i didn't know whether it was going to collapse on me, but when president eisenhower sent the troops, i mean, that sent one hell of a message.

the most difficult times for us is when we withdrew the troops from his side, and then we had to deal with students and harassment and the throwing of food and cursing and locker room being steamed up and glass being broken, and, you know, i mean, but, again, it came -- something in the back of my head said, you know, if they want to fight this hard to keep you out, something else is going on here. >> yes. >> and -- and giving up on it at this point is not -- not an option, and that i think is

really the nine of us, we worked with each other. we became a close-knit unit, a family, and that was really what helped us get through that year. >> little rock nine, ernie green, thank you so much. [ applause ] i'm going to move over -- >> thank you. >> i will add one other thing, that during that period one of -- louis armstrong spoke out strongly. >> the singer. >> the singer. >> the musician. >> the trumpet player, the musician, and he spoke out and add monished eisenhower to send some protection in to help us. >> he did indeed. >> there weren't a lot of people standing up at that point, and i really think the image that we have of somebody like armstrong, that he would step out of character and stand up. >> david nichols, i want you to

pick up the thread. ernie talked to herbert brownell who worked with president eisenhower quite closely so many years and said why so closely. why did he decide to intervene the way he did and why so many troops? >> permit me a personal privilege for a second. mr. green, have you my enormous respect, and your store set real story about this. i've written about president eisenhower and i'll talk about that, but yours is the great story that my book doesn't pretend to address, and it's the story of great courage and great importance. >> thank you. >> and i have an african-american daughter who is better off because of what you did, and i appreciate that. [ applause ] >> so if i may, for people who need resources on this, pbs has just aired "daisy bates." it's an hour or a 90-minute documentary produced by sharon le cruz once an employee of

black side incorporated where i worked on with eyes on the prize which is a very fine resource for this story as well, so there's a couple of -- there's many, many books on the subject so people can follow up. david nichols. >> the intervention. >> yes. >> you want me to talk about eisenhower's troop decision. >> yes. >> i talk about little rock as the tip of the iceberg and we already talked about the judicial appointments. eisenhower and his attorney general herbert brownell anticipated violence from almost the moment the brown decision was made and early on, the 101st airborne division sent into little rock in 1957 was trained in riot control. this was not for riots in europe. they anticipated this, hoped not. one reason that brownell could persuade eisenhower to propose legislation was he convinced eisenhower it might be an alternative to using the one legal out that he had which was

to use the troops, hoping not to do it. but he did. but little rock is the tip of the defense of brown iceberg, and i would point out to you that eisenhower could have chosen not to send troops. people assume he was forced to. >> yes. >> he was chose to, and he chose to very quickly, and he didn't craven around about it as much as some of the half informed commentaries say. the timeline was very shortstop as you mentioned, ernie, the faubus announced the national guard to -- to patrol the school on the night of september 2nd. they were there in the morning of september 3rd. on september 4th herbert brownell held a news conference and indicated specifically with the president's approval that one of the options of the president could use was to use troops to enforce the supreme court decision. faubus sent a hot wire to eisenhower who was on vacation

in newport, rhode island. eisenhower sent a telegram right back that was made public that said i will do whatever is necessary to upheld the constitution, they clear, now, they did meet and try to negotiate an arrangement on september 14th in newport, and that did not work out, and faubus did not keep his word. so eisenhower eventually on september 24th, when violence erupted again, mobilized the 101st airborne division, and he did -- he said to herbert brownell at that time.

he believed in overwhelming the force. you don't do these kinds of things halfway. you send the message, and i think what you said was appropriate. it was several kinds of messages, but i would point out it's the tip of the iceberg because remember about these federal judicial appointments, the judge, the federal judge who issued the court order to faubus to cease and desist was ronald davies, an eisenhower appointee, who opened the door for the justice department to intervene, which opened the door for sending troops to enforce the federal court order. eisenhower was a typical politician. in some ways he could be very cute about this saying i didn't send the troops to enforce desegregation. i sent them to upheld a federal court order. well, a federal court order about what? brown! that's what. and so ike would sometimes be cute -- too cute by half which was one reason why people looked at what he said publicly. sometimes they don't know where he's coming from because he'd be very politically cute about it. >> it is the first time that the troops were called in in this way. >> this was the first time -- first time that the federal troops were sent in to particularly a former confederate state since reconstruction after the civil war so this is not small potatoes. it's a big deal. but more important -- more important than the judicial appointments that lasted after little rock. >> all right. we've got some questions from the audience. these are good once. dr. carol anderson, i once heard you say when you visited simmons

college when you spoke of president truman and the conflict underscored when the naacp leader such as a. philip randolph wanted to go to the u.n. and file human rights violations against the u.s. and mrs. roosevelt and mrs. roosevelt forced them not to, asked by truman. you said your friends can only go so far. can you say more about this? >> yes. and what i'm talking about there is as allida black has so wonderfully laid out, eleanor was an ally, but one of the things about these alliances, and that is absolutely essential in understanding movement, and understanding these -- these freedom strategies, is that your allies can take you so far, they can only go so far, and if you're relying upon your ally to go this far, because what the naacp was counting on, because

she was a member of the naacp board of directors, and w.e.b. dubois had pulled together a fabulous petition to the u.n. called an appeal to the world, where he pulled together top school ears, legal school ears, socialists, his tore tans to document the systematic violation of human rights for african-americans since the founding of this nation, and because no government entity within the u.s. was willing to fully address these issues, the naacp took it to the u.n. this is 1947. this would be the beginning of the cold war, and in that cold war frame, eleanor roosevelt was not about to allow this dirty laundry to be aired before the soviet union because the soviets are sitting there on the commission of human rights seeing this powerful document from the naacp, a legitimate organization, right? and this carefully documented going sweet, i mean, just tears of joy. granted, these are soviets but

they are like thank you, god, and -- and eleanor is like, no, we must defend the united states. we cannot have our dirty laundry aired, and so part of that was the pushback in terms of burying this petition deep within the bowels of the u.n., but it was also in sending the signal to the naacp that all of this international stuff about human rights was not going to be tolerated, particularly in terms of human rights in the united states. we can talk about human rights that the polls aren't able to have democracy. we can talk about human rights that the east germans don't have freedom of speech, but we cannot talk about human rights in terms of what's happening in the united states, and so she resigned from the board of directors of the naacp, and it took all of walter white's efforts. i liken it to almost doing a james brown please, please,

please. >> don't go. >> don't go. >> eleanor, please, don't go. >> yeah. that's what i mean about your allies can only take you so far. there are things that she could do. there were things she could not do and would not do and the naacp needed to understand that as it was crafting its strategy. >> all right. are there any examples or any documentation of truman experiencing personal turmoil, threats to his personal safety because of his participation in matters of civil rights? >> oh, yeah. particularly in after his message to congress in february 1948, his state of the union address, and in it a state of the union address part of what he does is he lays out that this has got to be a nation that is committed to civil rights. this is a nation that has to be committed to fairness, to justice and to the bill of rights, and so he said in his message before congress i am going to issue two executive orders, one desegregating the federal bureaucracy and one desegregating the military, and -- and i -- you know, it's almost -- the black community goes wild. i mean, this is what they needed

to hear from the president of the united states. you read the black press, it's like tears ecstatic, just ecstatic. the southern democrats were like oh, oh, no, oh, no, and so part of what you see going through when you go through the document in the truman library, folks are like, you know, truman, you're going to have to die. you have to go. we'll have to get rid of you some way or the other. you'll have to go. for the southern democrats, the politicians themselves were saying, unless you get back on this track, we're going to bury you. you will not see the white house again. you see this then in the democratic national convention in philadelphia in 1948 in july where when hubert humphry gets up a speech and says we've been

in the shadow of states' rights for too long and it's time for us to walk within the bright sunshine of human rights and the crowd goes wild and the southern democrats are going up saying oh, really and they walk out and form the dixiecrat party with strom thurmond, as the dixiecrat's presidential nominee. this was -- he faced -- when you read through, you get the sense of anger with him, the sense that you are a traitor, that you don't deserve to be in the white house, so he faced a lot of pressure for his stance on -- on trying to move the u.s. forward. >> could this -- could the same question be asked of eisenhower, but because there has been this long feeling that he was, as i

said, operating behind the threats. ernie green. this is going to be a great question for you to answer. first lady of little rock. what can you say about her? did you meet her? i told that story please. >> one of the great things about that documentary is they have great style. she looked good and wore sunglasses and their hats were impeccable and she was also taking on the and i think the film makes the nice mark on here. men in the african-american community. she was president of the arkansas naacp. she was the state president. the arkansas state press. it was a journal that we all read. when the time came, she had sued the little rock school board. adhered to the 54 decision.

we were finally admitted and mrs. baits sort of served as the mentor and the house served as the vocal point. she had the flow of information and all the journalists from around the world. she helped to keep us grounded. we didn't know all this was swirlingly around us. we were trying to stay focused on the studies.

make sure they would finish out that year. >> of which you are a part. okay. >> yes. >> okay. here's a question, dr. martin luther king said we can pass all the laws we want, we cannot legislate the heart and have prejudice in america. bernie green, i'll let you have that final word >> you are educating by them like this. we have the cover of the activity going on. among these presidents, among the administrations. and it's important to tell a story that just did not appear on the mall overnight, that the number of people that

contributed, who played a role, the unnamed faces and thousands and thousands of people, black and white, that had a vision about what this country could become. that it would be better than it's history and that its future is going to be brighter than those of us that played a role in it. and i think it's -- it really underscores the opportunity for this next generation. kennedy talked about passing the torch. the torch really gets passed because all of the players played a role in it. and that would be my last word. >> and that is the last word here. except let me thank our guests.

[ applause ] >> you are watching american history tv. every week we feature the lives and legacies of presidents and first ladies of the united states. sundays at 8:30 and 7:30 and 10:30 eastern. that's on c-span 3. >> all weekend long, american history tv joins the cox communications in literary culture. settled in 1839, all of these are seen here. the other reservations are abolished and here's the one last island of available land that can be farmed and that is val ubl. >> 50,000 people ran for the land run. since the 1860s, congress had a policy on the books called the homestead act. it said that anyone who would

move to the frontier under the public domain and stay for five years and make improvements and satisfy all of those conditions, they would receive title to the land. it was free land to encourage settlement. the west was virtually settled. so the high plains, southern pains, through kansas and into mexico. all of the land around us is settled in the 1860s, 1870s and into the 1880s. congress and the president started moving tribes out of the old southeast, out of the midwest, out of the atlantic coast states and moved them to oklahoma, until we had 39 tribes here. so from the 18 teens, 1892, all of the indian tribes are sent here. so it's just one vast indianress ser rags and those lands are opened. here's one last island of

airable land that can be farmed. everyone wants it. well, in 1889, there are no more tribes to bring into the territory. but yet their one parcel right in the middle of the indian territory that's unassigned and so it gets its name, the unassigned lands. today it goes from oklahoma to the north to norman, oklahoma on the south it's about six counties of oklahoma, not owned or settled by any other indian tribe. so congress decides we are going to open this under the homestead act and let people claim the land. how do you do it? it's a small parcel of land. many people want the land. if you take the political philosophy of the time in

government, government needs to step back and take your hands off of daily life. the theory that the fascists and the smartest will survive. keep the government out of it. let people run for it. the first to get to 160 acres of rural land. one of the towns claims it. defends it. stays on it for years and gets it for free. congress sets a date for the land. april 22nd, 1889. high noon. on that day, 50,000 people lineup around the borders of the territory and at high noon, the cannons go off and the flags go down. 50,000 people rush for free land. about half go to the farms and the other half go to towns. such as stillwater and norman.

thut gut ree that night, every part and parcel of the unassigned lands is claimed by somebody. these are towns grown in one day. they 10,000 people that night. only a handful. so the land run was this experiment in a way to settle the american west. was there cheating? yes. were there people who came in early. yes. were there court cases? yes, they would drag on for almost a decade. and social darwinnism and the farmers who may have been the farmers in their communities, if they had a wagon both of those

philosophies of government and part of the american west was settled. and it's taken away from indian tribes and put into the public domain. the federal government and the other tribes are picked off one at a time. some big parcels, 1893, the cherokee outlet in northern oklahoma just in the northern border and in the southwestern parts of the state, all of this was opened in 1900 by