Coming Back Together

The crisis attracted scrutiny from the world, most troubling for Eisenhower, from the Soviet Union and communist parties around the globe. The United States suddenly found itself behind the struggle for the hearts and minds of people in Africa, Asia, and Latin America. Eisenhower had to repair the country’s image. Arkansas had to do the same, if only to restore normalcy like residents going to school or work. The state's African-American community, the Little Rock Nine, and everyone else had to carry forward and rebuild their lives.

On the international stage, the U.S. State Department dealt with the fallout. Essentially, Faubus and American segregationists provided a winning issue for the Soviet Union, and it came at a good time. Soviets had endured its own human rights debacle in Hungary in 1956, when the Soviet Army quashed pro-democratic uprisings. The Soviet Union and international communist parties denounced Little Rock as another episode of troubling racism in the United States, pointing that Americans had a long, blemished human rights record. Governments around the world denounced the Americans, and the U.S. diplomatic corps had to rebuild the country's credibility as a better alternative to Soviet-style communism. The U.S. had seemed to lose the war to win hearts and minds. To make matters worse, the Soviet Union launched Sputnik in October 1957, thus winning the space race.

Domestically, turbulence presided in Little Rock for a time. Soon after the schools reopened, explosions destroyed a business where Mayor Werner Knoop had worked, a school district building, and a vehicle parked outside Fire Chief Gann Nalley's residence. A week later, Reverend Billy Graham preached to a crowd of 30,000 at War Memorial Stadium, where he addressed the crisis and said that "only Christ can heal these scars and wounds." Faubus was in attendance.

Central High School continued its gradual desegregation. Among the Little Rock Nine, only Jefferson Thomas and Carlotta Walls returned to Central, while other transferred out of state, went to college, and were successful in their own right. In 1958, the NAACP awarded them its highest honor, the Springarn Medal. In 1999, President Bill Clinton presented them with the Congressional Gold Medal.

Faubus remained in office until 1967. During those years, he beat several candidates who were critical of his role in the crisis, including Winthrop Rockefeller and his old mentor, former Governor Sidney McMath.

Since then, the benchmark of a successful tenure in public office was to avoid another Little Rock.