Stephen A. Smith might be right. Maybe it's wrong to judge Jerry Jones for something that happened 65 years ago. Maybe he was just "curious." How could anyone know?
A thread.
he discussion centers around this photograph, taken on Sept. 9, 1957, when white students tried to prevent six Black students from integrating North Little Rock High School.
One of those white students is Cowboys owner Jerry Jones.
It worked.
They actually turned the Black students away. The North Little Rock School District would not integrate until 1964.
And Jerry Jones was right in the middle of it all.
To be fair, Jerry Jones was a sophomore in high school. And, according to the Washington Post, he said:
“I don’t know that I or anybody anticipated or had a background of knowing … what was involved. It was more a curious thing.”
washingtonpost.com/sports/interac…
So even though some people ALWAYS find a way to contort themselves in a way that lands on the side of the powerful white establishment, maybe Smith is right about this one. Maybe Jones didn't know what was going to happen.
How could he have known?
If Jerry Jones, a high school football player, didn't know, it meant he wasn't listening when his COACH warned the team that there would be trouble.
Wait... Didn't he tell the post that he had heard?
Maybe he had no clue that people in his community were planning to use violence and the threat of violence to preserve white supremacy. Maybe he didn't communicate with a lot of his neighbors
Oh, wait...
It would also mean that Jones had no idea that his school was even planning to desegregate. After all, this happened on Sept. 9. What was the biggest story in Arkansas at the time?
No... What was the biggest story in AMERICA?
But hindsight is 20/20. What were people saying at the time? Who prevented those students from integrating NLRHS?
According to every report I could find, the Black students were confronted by 10 white students in front of the school.
But that's not what turned them around
The top of the stairs
You know what? Maybe I'm making this up.
Maybe we should ask someone who was there, like Richard Lindsey, one of the North Little Rock Six
Apparently, not only did Jones not see the national, local and state newspapers, we are supposed to believe that EVERY STUDENT THERE knew what was going on except Jerry Jones.
Yet, for some reason, Jones decided to go...
To the TOP OF THE STAIRS
So what happened at the top of the stairs?
But here's my beef with this entire conversation and white supremacy in general.
Forget about all those racist students and their parents and the cops and the school administrators or the government.
What if Jerry Jones wasn't a violent segregationist?
What if he really didn't want his classmates spitting on Black kids & using the n-word? What if he wanted to attend an integrated school? NO ONE expects teenage Jerry Jones to stand up to a mob by himself, but ask yourself this?
Why are the "good white people" never around?
Why is it always Black people vs ALL the white people?
Why weren't there 25 or 10 or 6 white kids out there standing for what's right?
Why weren't a dozen white parents out there?
Why can't news reporters find them?
Why aren't they on the police force or the school board?
THAT IS THE POINT.
The point is not that Jerry Jones was a violent segregationist. The point is that he can watch something like this and never MENTION IT FOR THE REST OF HIS LIFE. The point is not that Jones has never hired a Black head coach...
It's about how people can rationalize racism with fantastical excuses that have no basis in logic or reality.
Jones not knowing what was going on that day is as unbelievable as the CEO of a company with an 80% Black workforce saying: "I can't find a qualified shift leader"
And the crazy thing is, PEOPLE WILL BELIEVE IT.
But maybe I'm one of those CRT people who distort history by applying today's standards to the past.
Instead of listening to me or the guy who was actually there, let's see how newspapers back then described what happened.
But this isn't about 1 day 65 years ago.
It's about NOW. It's about WHY this inequality persists.
But I truly understand why some people ALWAYS seem to land on the side of defending whiteness: I even understand WHY some people will stand and watch and do nothing.
We are all just trying to reach the top of the stairs.
Share this Scrolly Tale with your friends.
A Scrolly Tale is a new way to read Twitter threads with a more visually immersive experience.
Discover more beautiful Scrolly Tales like this.