American Military History, Volume 2 by Richard W. Stewart

Within the United States itself, meanwhile, tensions growing out of the efforts of African Americans to achieve equal rights had forced the federal government to intervene in civil disturbances on a scale not seen since the nineteenth century. The first and most dramatic instance came in September 1957. Responding to rioting in Little Rock, Arkansas, that had followed a court order admitting nine African American stu- dents to the city's Central High School, President Eisenhower federal- ized the Arkansas National Guard and called in a battle group from the 101st Airborne. The troops dispersed a mob that gathered at the school, stabilizing the situation. It was one of the few times in American history that a Chief Executive had used either Regular Army or National Guard forces despite the opposition of a state's governor.

Other instances of the sort followed during the Kennedy and John- son administrations. In September 1962, for example, the governor of Mississippi attempted to block the court-ordered registration of an Af- rican American, James H. Meredith, at the University of Mississippi in Oxford. President Kennedy sought at first to enforce the law by calling in federal marshals, but when they proved incapable of restoring order, he deployed troops: eventually some 20,000 regulars and 10,000 fed- eralized Mississippi National Guardsmen. Most stood in reserve, but 12,000 took up station near the university. With the military in firm control, the tension eased. Most of the troops went home within a short while, but federal forces nevertheless maintained a presence in the area throughout the remainder of the school year.