Introduction

ON THE COOL EVENING of February 18, 1957, Ira Sanders, rabbi of Little Rock’s Congregation B’nai Israel, arrived at the Arkansas legislative chambers inside the state capitol. He had come to speak at a public hearing then underway that would help decide the fate of four anti-integration measures before the Arkansas Senate. A vocal crowd packed the chambers to witness the various speakers who would put forth arguments about the measures, either in enthusiastic support or in outraged opposition. Numbering more than nine hundred, the spectators occupied all of the available seating on the floor and jammed the gallery overlooking