Ronald Norwood Davies

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American judge (1904–1996)

Ronald Norwood Davies (December 11, 1904 – April 18, 1996) was a United States district judge of the United States District Court for the District of North Dakota . He is best known for his role in the Little Rock Integration Crisis in the fall of 1957. Davies ordered the desegregation of the previously all-white Little Rock Central High .

Education and career

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Davies was born on December 11, 1904, in Crookston in Polk County in northwestern Minnesota . In 1927, he received an Artium Baccalaureus degree from the College of Liberal Arts at the University of North Dakota at Grand Forks , North Dakota . In 1930, he received a Bachelor of Laws from Georgetown Law in Washington, D.C.

He practiced law in Grand Forks from 1930 to 1932, before becoming a Judge of the Grand Forks Municipal Court from 1932 to 1940. In 1940, Davies and a fellow Grand Forks attorney, Charles F. Peterson, formed a private law practice. During World War II , Davies served in the United States Army from 1942 to 1946. After the war, Davies went back to his private practice from 1946 to 1955.

Federal judicial service

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On June 21, 1955, Davies was nominated by President Dwight D. Eisenhower to a seat on the United States District Court for the District of North Dakota , based in Fargo , vacated by Judge Charles Joseph Vogel . Davies was confirmed by the United States Senate on July 22, 1955, and received his commission on July 27, 1955. He assumed senior status on August 27, 1971. His service terminated on April 18, 1996, due to his death in Fargo.

Little Rock

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Main article: Little Rock Nine

Davies is perhaps best known for challenging Orval Faubus , the Governor of Arkansas , during the 1957 Little Rock Integration Crisis . On August 22, 1957, Judge Archibald K. Gardner of the United States Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit temporarily assigned Judge Davies to the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Arkansas in Little Rock , the state capital of Arkansas , where no judge had been sitting for several months.

Osro Cobb , the United States Attorney for the Eastern District of Arkansas , describes Davies, accordingly:

He was a comparatively new jurist and was full of energy, ready to tackle the large docket of cases that had accumulated during the many months when no judge was sitting at Little Rock. The condition of the docket was the reason for his assignment. I spent long hours briefing Judge Davies about the crowded docket because the government was a party to about 30 percent of the cases on it. The integration fight was boiling in the local media, but no motion or pleading relating to it was on file in the district court when Judge Davies began his duties in Little Rock. All such matters heard by him originated after his arrival in Little Rock in August 1957.

The Supreme Court of the United States issued its _Brown v. Topeka Board of Education _ decision (347 U.S. 483) on May 17, 1954. The decision called for the desegregation of all public schools. In 1955, the court declared that the desegregation process must continue with "all deliberate speed". The Little Rock School Board unanimously decided to comply with the high court's ruling and agreed to a gradual desegregation plan, which would be implemented in the 1958 school year.

By 1957, the NAACP had registered nine black students to attend the all-white Little Rock Central High School. Meanwhile, the "Mother's League", a segregationist parents group, requested an injunction against the Little Rock School Board to prevent the nine students from attending the school. Segregationist parents also threatened to protest in front of the high school and physically block any black students from entering the school. Murray Reed, the chancellor of Pulaski County Chancery Court, granted the injunction on August 27, 1956, "on the grounds that integration could lead to violence." Judge Davies, however, nullified the injunction on August 30 and ordered the school board to proceed with integration on September 3.

Despite the federal court's ruling, Governor Faubus deployed the Arkansas National Guard to the school under the pretense of maintaining civil order. The nine black students attempted to enter Central High on September 4, 1957, but were turned away by the guardsmen. The deployment of the guardsmen brought international attention to Little Rock. President Eisenhower called Governor Faubus to his vacation home in Newport , Rhode Island on September 14, 1957, and warned him not to interfere with the Supreme Court's ruling.

Attorneys from the United States Department of Justice requested an injunction

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