Chapter Ten
True North
Often in the life of leaders, an early event has transformed them forever. It can
temper ambition with purpose and challenge teachings of the past. It holds a mirror
up and demands "Who are you?" and "What do you stand for?" For some it was Selma and
Birmingham; for others it was looking down a rifle in Vietnam or at Wounded Knee. For
Bill Clinton, it was the Little Rock Nine.
In 1957, shortly after the Supreme Court ruled to dismantle segregation in Brown
v. Board of Education, nine black teenagers walked silently to the door of
Central High School in Little Rock. The televised event mesmerized the
eleven-year-old Clinton, who attended Ramble Elementary, a segregated school fifty
miles away in Hot Springs.
He watched as Governor Orval Faubus dramatically summoned the National Guard to
prevent them from entering the school. He watched as President Eisenhower then
ordered the Army's 101st Airborne Division to the state capital. He watched as the
teenagers were escorted through angry mobs to the front door by soldiers with
gleaming bayonets drawn, for all the world to see on the ... read full excerpt from: Dead Center: Clinton-Gore Leadership and the Perils of Moderation ebook
