Eisenhower, Education, and Civil Rights: a Reassessment of the Eisenhower Administration's Contribution to School Desegregation...

1956年，在德克萨斯州的曼斯菲尔德小镇，三名非裔美国儿童被州警察阻止进入当地学校就读。尽管1954年被称为布朗诉教育委员会的最高法院做出裁决，宣布学校种族隔离违宪，但德克萨斯州州长采取了戏剧性的措施，邀请武装警察阻止非裔美国儿童入学，并阻止曼斯菲尔德中央高中取消种族隔离。第二年，同样的事情发生在阿肯色州的小石城，该州州长利用国民警卫队来防止学校废除种族隔离。然而，联邦政府在这两起事件中的反应却截然不同。在小石城，艾森豪威尔政府派遣联邦军队确保学校废除种族隔离--这是曼斯菲尔德没有采取的行动。正如小石城的事件所表明的那样，联邦政府在曼斯菲尔德缺乏干预并不是因为无法采取行动；相反，这是决定不采取行动的结果。

In the small town of Mansfield, Texas, 1956, three African-American children were prevented by state troopers from enrolling in the local school. Despite the ruling of the Supreme Court known as Brown vs. Board of Education, 1954, declaring school segregation unconstitutional, the Governor of Texas took the dramatic step of inviting armed officers to block the enrolment of the African-American children, and to stop the desegregation of Mansfield's Central High. The same happened in the subsequent year in Little Rock, Arkansas,where the State Governor used the National Guard to prevent school desegregation. Yet, the Federal Government's reaction in these two instances was markedly different. In Little Rock, the Eisenhower administration sent Federal troops to ensure school desegregation -an action not taken in Mansfield. As the events in Little Rock suggest,the lack of Federal intervention in Mansfield was not the result of an inability to act; rather, it was the outcome of a decision not to act.