Early steps in the civil rights movement, 1940s and 1950s

“President Eisenhower was well aware of the political costs of intervening in the Little Rock situation — or not intervening. He knew for one thing that the leadership in the Congress, both the Senate and the House, would be antagonized if he decided to send troops into Little Rock. . . But he knew that not going into Little Rock would mean that he would be charged, and rightfully charged, with not enforcing the Supreme Court decision in the Brown case. Upholding the Constitution was his duty as president, so on balance he never had any hesitation once the crisis developed.”

-Source: Herbert Brownwell, historian, Voices of Freedom: An Oral History of the Civil Rights Movement from the 1950s Through the 1980s, 2011