A 60-year perspective on leadership

In 1957, I was a senior at Little Rock Central High. Then-Gov. Orval Faubus, defied orders of the Supreme Court and President Eisenhower to desegregate. The governor called out the National Guard to prevent nine black students from entering the student body of 2,000 white teenagers. Inflamed by the governor’s stand, loud and ugly crowds shouted threats and insults as the LR9 were turned away. Weeks before, a cross had been burned on the front lawn of Ms. Daisy Bates, president of the Arkansas NAACP. A note on a rock thrown in the window read, “Go back to Africa.” A sign by the burning cross read: “The KKK.”

Eisenhower sent the 101st Airborne to Little Rock to enforce the law. Order was quickly restored and the LR9 were admitted. Fortunately, no one was killed. But these brave young pioneers suffered an entire year of threats, insults, and physical attacks from other students.

Sixty years later, President Donald Trump sees no difference between those who demonstrate to inflame racism, bigotry, murder and white superiority ... and those who demonstrate to oppose them. Faubus was elected for an unprecedented number of terms while the politicians around him were feckless enablers. It remains to be seen if our current president can ride the enabling base of voters and politicians to a full term and beyond.

My wife and I emphatically, unequivocally and wholeheartedly denounce the president’s immoral position in this matter and all those who support the beliefs of the murderous white supremacists in Charlottesville.

This story was originally published August 17, 2017 at 3:02 PM with the headline "A 60-year perspective on leadership."