Bill Clinton: “After the Brown decision was decided, like I said, all people had to figure out, well, how are we going to integrate our…”

“After the Brown decision was decided, like I said, all people had to figure out, well, how are we going to integrate our school system, and how fast? So they went back to the Supreme Court, and there was a second Brown decision that said ``with all deliberate speed.'' So, who knows what that means, right? For people who didn't want to integrate, they said ``with all deliberate speed'' might be 4 or 5 years. For people who did want to integrate, they said it would be 4 or 5 weeks. So that was the issue there: How long could they take to integrate? And the court order in Greenville said, `` `All deliberate speed' is 30 days. Do it.'' And they did it, because they had leaders like Secretary Riley and his family who believed it was the right thing to do and who made it work. I'll say a little more about that in a minute. But believing in your heart that something is the right thing to do makes a big difference in whether it gets done or not. Now, after these things happened, there was still resistance to integration all across the South and in other parts of America, and there were still other questions that had to be resolved and other issues about how this would be done. In my home State and Mr. Green's home State of Arkansas, in Little Rock, there was a case that went all the way to the Supreme Court involving the Little Rock school system, called Cooper v. Arens, which was also a very large decision in the whole history of the Supreme Court law affecting the schools. In Little Rock, the then-Governor of our State called out the National Guard to stop the integration of the school, which had been ordered by the Supreme Court, devised by the local school board. And then the President of the United States, as you saw in the movie, took over the National Guard and used it to protect the right of Ernest Green and eight other people to attend Little Rock Central High School. I want him to talk a little bit about his experience, how he felt, what he went through. You saw the movie, which was premiered, interestingly enough, in the auditorium at Little Rock Central High School, and he and I were there the night that it was premiered in the auditorium where he became the first black student to go and to graduate. He's done rather well. I want him to tell you a little bit about what he's doing with his life now so you'll understand the enormous consequence of this decision. But first, I think you need to understand a little more about what happened. So I'd like to ask Mr. Green to talk now. Ernest Green. [Mr. Green described his experience in integrating Central High School in Little Rock and pointed out the connection between the Brown decision and developments in South Africa.]”