Jeff Nichols Quotes
I grew up in Arkansas, and I went to Little Rock Central High, which was the site of a desegregation crisis in '57. I graduated in '97.
Nichols, Jeff. Interview by Kristopher Tapley. "Director Jeff Nichols on 'Loving' and the Politics of Equality." Variety, Penske Media Corporation, 3 Nov. 2016.
Defending his action of using national guard troops to prevent school integration:
Arkansas Governor Faubus ordered the national guard to prevent Black students from integrating Central High School in Little Rock. President Eisenhower was a man of action and not rhetoric and his lack of firm public statements overlooked an opportunity to use the Presidential “bully pulpit” and exercise his moral leadership and authority. Armstrong was irate at Eisenhower for appearing to do nothing and say nothing. See {615852}. When Eisenhower did enforce the court order and used Federal troops, Armstrong sent him this congratulatory telegram. His reference to walking into the schools was in support of many who suggested that the best thing the President could have done was to personally take one of the Black students by the hand and walk into the school with him or her. With the mood of the Southern racists, such an act was potentially very risky for the President and it is not known whether of not the President and his staff ever considered such an act.
The statement was made even more dramatic as the outgoing Governor, Lester Mattox, standing behind Carter at the ceremony, was an arch segregationist.
Historically, the Southern reaction to early 20th centry Civil Rights efforts was that it was the work of communist and anarchist radicals who were trying to destabilize America. When that argument began to be exposed as false, the next line of defense was that the southern Negro was perfectly happy in the segregated South, and the only problem was Northern liberals, black and white, who came to the South to foment trouble.
Following the lead of Arkansas, many southern schools were closed by order of the Governor when they received a court order to desegregate. Southern education was the poorest in the nation and the Southern students not able to go to school made the situation worse. Governor Almond changing his position realized that the cost of defying the Constitution and the courts was the ignorance of the students of the state, and became a major force persuading the state to integrate their schools. He is remembered for his leadership of desegregation and most people have forgotten that at the beginning of his term as governor he was as bad as most of the other Southern segregationist politicians.
Jeff Nichols is an American film director and screenwriter from Little Rock, Arkansas. He studied filmmaking at the University of North Carolina School of the Arts. Nichols is most known for his films Take Shelter (2011), Mud (2012), and Loving (2016), which have been critically acclaimed.
