ights Act of 1957, examined
complaints of voting discrimination and denials of equal protection
under the law. Both Eisenhower and Kennedy dispatched federal
officials to investigate and prosecute violations of voting rights in
several states.

But civil rights progress was still painfully slow in the 1950's. The
fight for civil rights in that decade graphically demonstrated a
political fact of life: any profound change in the nation's social
system requires the concerted efforts of all three branches of the
national government. In this case the Supreme Court had done its part,
repeatedly attacking segregation in many spheres of national life. The
executive branch, on the other hand, did not press the Court's
decisions as thoroughly as some had hoped, although Eisenhower
certainly did so forcibly and spectacularly with federal troops at
Little Rock in 1957. The dispatch of paratroopers to Little
Rock,[19-11] a memorable example of federal intervention and one
popularly associated with civil rights, had, in fact, little to do
with civil rights, but was rather a vivid example of the exercise of
executive powers in the face of a threat to federal judicial
authority. Where the _Brown_ decision was concerned, Eisenhower's view
of judicial powers was narrow and his leadership antithetical to the
Court's call for "all deliberate speed." He even withheld his support
in school desegregation cases. Eisenhower was quite frank about the
limitations he perceived in his power and, by inference, his duty to
effect civil rights reforms. Such reforms, he believed, were a matter
of the heart and, as he explained to Congressman Powell in 1953, could
not be achieved by means of laws or directives or the action of any
one person, "no matter with how much authority and forthrightness he
acts."[19-12]

[Footnote 19-11: For an authoritative account of
Little Rock, see Robert W. Coakley's "Operation
Arkansas," Center of Military History Study 158M,
1967. See also Paul J. Scheips, "Enforcement of the
Federal Judicial Process by Federal Marshals," in
_Bayonets in the Streets; The Use of Troops in
Civil Disturbances_, ed. Robin Higham (Lawrence:
University Press of Kansas, 1969), pp. 39-42.]

[Footnote 19-12: Ltr, Eisenhower to Powell, 6 Jun 53,
G 124-A-1,