Republished with permission from David Clements.
President Dwight D. Eisenhower at Little Rock in 1957. Arkansas Governor Orval Faubus called out his state’s National Guard to bar nine Black students—the Little Rock Nine—from entering Central High School, defying the Supreme Court’s Brown v. Board of Education ruling that ended school segregation. Eisenhower federalized the Arkansas Guard, removing it from Faubus’ control, and sent 1,000 paratroopers from the 101st Airborne Division. Federal troops escorted the students past hostile crowds and local police who had failed to maintain order, directly overriding state resistance.
So too at the University of Mississippi in 1962: President John F. Kennedy deployed over 30,000 troops after Mississippi Governor Ross Barnett used state police and highway patrol to block Black student James Meredith from enrolling, defying federal court orders. Federal forces confronted rioters supported by state officials, two dead in the clash, but Meredith registered.And at the University of Alabama in 1963: Governor George Wallace personally stood in the schoolhouse door, backed by Alabama state troopers, to prevent two Black students, Vivian Malone and James Hood, from registering. Kennedy federalized the Alabama National Guard, which escorted the students past Wallace and his troopers, forcing compliance without major violence.
President Trump has the right to protect Tina Peters from the rogue state of Colorado. Some would argue that he has the duty to do so.
