The road to Little Rock and the challenge of equality

GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. — Fifty years ago, Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas, became desegregation’s first battleground. When Dwight D. Eisenhower sent the 101st Airborne in to integrate Central High, he didn’t know he was fighting the last, great battle of his career.

“Ike’s Final Battle: The Road to Little Rock and the Challenge of Equality” tells how one of America’s greatest leaders finally confronted America’s greatest sin. 

Author Kasey Pipes will give an account of Eisenhower’s “final battle” Wednesday, January 30, at 7:30 p.m. at the Gerald R. Ford Presidential Museum in downtown Grand Rapids. The event is sponsored by Grand Valley State University’s Hauenstein Center for Presidential Studies and GVSU’s Office of Multicultural Affairs.

“Eisenhower did not want to fight this battle,” said Gleaves Whitney, director of the Hauenstein Center for Presidential Studies, “but it was historically necessary. Little Rock’s desegregation fight was a key chapter in the effort to dismantle the nation’s Jim Crow laws. Kasey Pipes does a wonderful job explaining this critical moment in U.S. history.”

Pipes worked in the George W. Bush White House, wrote speeches for California governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and was chief author of the 2004 Republican Party National Platform. He now serves as president of The Pipes Company, a corporate communications consulting firm. A commissioned officer in the U.S. Navy Reserve, he lives with his wife in Fort Worth, Texas.

For more information, contact the Hauenstein Center at (616) 331-2770, or visit www.allpresidents.org .