𝟏𝟗𝟓𝟕~𝐖𝐇𝐄𝐍 𝐍𝐈𝐍𝐄 𝐁𝐋𝐀𝐂𝐊 𝐒𝐓𝐔𝐃𝐄𝐍𝐓𝐒 𝐖𝐄𝐑𝐄 𝐁𝐋𝐎𝐂𝐊𝐄𝐃 𝐁𝐘 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐍𝐀𝐓𝐈𝐎𝐍𝐀𝐋 𝐆𝐔𝐀𝐑𝐃 𝐅𝐑𝐎𝐌 𝐄𝐍𝐓𝐄𝐑𝐈𝐍𝐆 𝐋𝐈𝐓𝐓𝐋𝐄 𝐑𝐎𝐂𝐊 𝐇𝐈𝐆𝐇 𝐒𝐂𝐇𝐎𝐎𝐋

                                                                                     

Elizabeth Eckford walks through hostile crowd to enter Little Rock High School in 1957

     

Google is not going to mollycoddle me by just gifting me a list of "southern racist politicians." No matter.  I know most of them anyway, could write a paragraph or two on each from memory; Lester Maddox, George Wallace, Orville Faubus, James Eastland, Harry Byrd, Strom Thurmond.(Whenever I hear or read the name "Strom Thurmond," I automatically think of Lou Holtz, who was fired as Arkansas football coach by Athletic Director Frank Broyles thinking his one-time support of Thurmond would effect Arkansas' recruiting of Black athletes.)

Many of these southern racists were also anti-public school because of court orders forcing integration.  That tradition is now carried by Christian evangelicals, some of the most racist folk around, who now promote school vouchers to finance the schools they fancy.

                                  

Arkansas Governor Orville Faubus holding racist sign

I'll add J. William Fulbright to the list of racists, newsworthy because Trump is effectively ending the Fulbright Scholarship Program in much the same way he took over Kennedy Center Honors. (I fully expect Kid Rock, Lee Greenwood and Hulk Hogan to garner those honors next time around.)  Trumpism, academics and the arts don't mix well.

Fulbright was an oddity as one of the most outspoken opponents of the Vietnam War, but also someone who opposed the 1964 Civil Rights Act.  He got tricked, though, into backing the Gulf of Tonkin resolution after a U.S. ship was attacked, then watched as Tonkin became the underpinning for supporting the war.

I met two of the Little Rock Nine years ago, who, as high school students, were blocked from attending Little Rock High School as the racist Governor Orville Faubus called out the National Guard to block their entrance to the school.(Racist politicos are still misusing the National Guard.)

Now, with respect to the dismantling of the Fulbright Scholarship Program by Trump, here's what's been written:

"Effective immediately, members of the Congressionally mandated Fulbright Foreign Scholarship Board voted overwhelmingly to resign from the board, rather than endorse unprecedented actions that we believe are impermissible under the law, compromise U.S. national interests and integrity, and undermine the mission and mandates Congress established for the Fulbright program nearly 80 years ago," the board wrote in its official statement.

"We believe these actions not only contradict the statute but are antithetical to the Fulbright mission and the values, including free speech and academic freedom, that Congress specified in the statute," the board wrote.

"It is worth noting that the awards that were overridden include studies in categories such as biology, engineering, architecture, agriculture, crop sciences, animal sciences, biochemistry, medical sciences, music, and history," they added.

But, back in 1957, while it was Governor Orville Faubus who originally brought in Arkansas National Guard to keep the nine Black students from entering Little Rock High School, President Eisenhower commandeered those guardsman and added 1000 paratroopers from the 101st Airborne Division to facilitate safe passage into the school.

Thanks Ike!