For many Americans, public school integration was the first visible and meaningful result of the civil rights movement’s call for an end to legal discrimination. But it was not an easy transition: in September 1957, when nine Black students attempted to enter their formerly all-white high school in Little Rock, Arkansas, Governor Orval Faubus ordered the Arkansas National Guard to keep them out. It took an executive order from President Eisenhower to federalize the National Guard to get the students inside. While unabashedly racist unionists wrote to the AFL-CIO in protest, progressive labor organizers were also reluctant to publicly endorse integration because it was so hated among the very people they were trying to organize. However, support poured in from union leaders outside the South for Eisenhower and George Meany’s support of his decision: “May I respectfully convey to you the support of the United Packinghouse Workers of America, AFL-CIO. . . I would think that it would be desirable that such expressions of support come from the Civil Rights Committee or President Meany whichever may be appropriate and also from as large a number of international unions as is possible.”

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