Desegregation in Hoxie

May 2014 marks the sixtieth anniversary of the Brown v. Board of Education school desegregation decision. In the summer of 1955, the school board at Hoxie voted for financial reasons, out of a legal obligation, and because it believed it was “morally right in the sight of God” to desegregate. Teachers and students made the new twenty-one black pupils welcome. But the very success of school desegregation, reported with photographs in Life magazine, made it a rallying point for resistance by outside agitators like Jim Johnson and the White Citizens Council. Nevertheless, the Hoxie school board held firm and refused cave. Backed by the courts, Hoxie schools remained desegregated, demonstrating that courageous leadership and the conviction to do the right thing could prevail even in the most difficult circumstances and at the most difficult times. I’m John Kirk, of the UALR History Department, and this has been an Arkansas Moment.