Around Town : Remembering courage in times of crisis
Posted on Wednesday, September 24, 2008
In the struggle to forge our country 232 years ago, James Madison, John Jay and Alexander Hamilton penned a series of pamphlets to support and defend the creation of a new kind of government, one unlike any the world had ever known. In what became known as the Federalist Papers, Hamilton, one of the greatest minds in our nation's history and one of my favorite Founding Fathers, warned that we must be ever vigilant against the tyranny of the majority. His admonition is as true today as it was then. Indeed, such tyranny has always been a threat to democratic societies like ours.
Perhaps at no other time in American history was this truer or more evident than during the years when racial segregation was the law of our land. In 1954, the U. S. Supreme Court ended segregation of our nation's public schools, ruling in Brown vs. Board of Education of Topeka that "separate "schools could never be "equal."
In many Southern states, including Arkansas, the majority resisted the Court's ruling. Three years later, Little Rock received a federal order to desegregate the public schools; and the Little Rock Nine, under the protection of U. S. Army paratroopers, entered Little Rock Central High School.
Still, the majority resisted, and Little Rock's public schools were closed in 1958 in an effort to prevent further desegregation. It was then that Adolphine Terry and women from all across the city - 1, 400 of them - banded together to form the Women's Emergency Committee to Open Our Schools. I had the opportunity earlier this week to join some of those women, their friends and their families, in celebrating the 50 th anniversary of that courageous act.
When the WEC began its work, the civic and business leaders of the community were mostly male. While some supported integration and the re-opening of the schools, many had been cowed by segregationist intimidation and threats of economic boycott, which led Mrs. Terry to so famously remark," The men have failed. It's time to call out the women."
And so out came the women. They became targets of harassment, but the women of the WEC persevered in the face of intimidation and threats. They were not radicals or revolutionaries by nature. They were women of their community, women with families and reputations, who wanted their sons and daughters to have the benefits of a fine public education so critical to their futures. And in the face of overwhelming opposition, they dared to stand up and say," This is wrong. "
And so, as we take time this week to remember and honor the bravery and determination of these remarkable women, we must also remember that the greatest tribute we can pay them is to pledge to continue the work they began 50 years ago.
Our state's greatest responsibility is the education of our people; it is and must be our first obligation, both constitutionally and morally. So long as any child does not receive the education he needs and deserves, we still have work to do.
We are thankful to the women of the WEC, not only for what they accomplished 50 years ago, but also for the courage and conviction they inspire in us today to carry on in service of their goal. And we must be ever-mindful that our Founders warned us to guard against tyranny of the majority infringing upon the rights of the minority.
Arkansas Gov. Mike Beebe can be reached at State Capitol, Little Rock, AR 72201 or telephone (501 ) 682-2345.
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