Inside Story of Little Rock

              U.S. News & World Report     BROOKS HAYS TELLS INSIDE STORY OF LITTLE ROCK     What went on behind the scenes in those tense weeks of 1957 before federal troops marched into Little Rock, Ark.?  Could that situation have been handled without the use of armed paratroopers?  One man who knows both sides of the story is a former Representative in Congress, Brooks Hays, who acted as a mediator between the White House and Governor Orval E. Faubus.  Now Mr. Hays has told the story in a book, "A Southern Moderate Speaks."  Excerpts from that book are presented here.  In it, Mr. Hays describes the growth of tension as the hour of integration approached, and tells about the negotiations that sought a peaceable solution-and why they failed.  Mr. Hays also suggests some things that might have been done to avoid violence.   by Brooks Hays   In September, 1956, Little Rock was heralded as a city whose plan for slow, gradual and voluntary integration could serve as a model for many cities in the South. In an article in "U. S. News & World Report" on September 28 of that year, entitled "How One Southern City Plans to Integrate," the pattern adopted by the Little Rock school board was presented as a "workable compromise" likely to be accepted by both sides in the school-integration dispute.  Virgil T. Blossom, superintendent of schools, had joined his board in trying to adjust the school system in accordance with the Supreme Court's May, 1954, decision. Just six days after that decision, the board stated: "It is our responsibility to comply with federal constitutional requirements, and we intend to do so when the Supreme Court . . . outlines the method to be followed."  A rough draft of the plan that was finally accepted was completed shortly before the Court ruled that implementation of "all deliberate speed" would be left to federal district courts.  According to the plan as finally accepted, integration would take place first at the high-school level, since the smallest number of pupils would be involved and the least strain would be put on Little Rock's educational standards.  After this first step had been thoroughly tested for at least two years, junior high schools would begin this moderate integration.  The last stage, involving the elementary schools, would follow another test period, and the whole process would take from five to 10 years to be completed.  Even then, the integration that took place would be on a voluntary basis, since pupils would be permitted to transfer from one school to another.  This, then, is what Little Rock was prepared to do by September, 1957. The NAACP [National Association for the Advancement of Colored People], early in 1956, however, after some Negroes had been refused immediate admittance to white schools, appealed to the federal courts for an order to end segregation in Little Rock.  The school board presented its plan for gradual integration to Judge John E. Miller of the United States District Court in Arkansas.  He approved the plan on Aug. 28, 1956, calling it a "prompt and reasonable start" toward compliance with the Supreme Court's ruling, and praised the school board for acting "in utmost good faith."  When the NAACP appealed to the U. S. Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals for reversal, the court upheld Judge Miller's decision.  This was the status of Little Rock's integration program until August of 1957.  During this last month before the school-board plan was to go into effect, forces were at work to prevent the peaceful accomplishment of this result.  On     118   Copyright, 1959, by the University of North Carolina Press    U. S. NEWS & WORLD REPORT, March 23, 1959