Reassessing Hannah Arendt's 'Reflections on Little Rock' 1959

Law, Culture and the Humanities, Forthcoming

Posted: 2 Mar 2007 Last revised: 29 Mar 2012

Date Written: August 26, 2011

Abstract

In 1959, Hannah Arendt published an essay in Dissent where she criticized the school integration movement. Ever since, the essay has been understood as an anomaly in her work and an affront to the school integration movement that followed Brown v. Board of Education (1954). Rather than being dismissed, this article suggests that Arendt’s “Reflections on Little Rock” should be read alongside Arendt’s contemporaneous works and appreciated for bringing up a topic that was central to Brown. It argues that Arendt’s “Reflections,” like the Brown opinion, was largely concerned with improving black children’s childhoods and that this point brought to light a broader concern for children’s childhoods that preoccupied Arendt deeply in the late 1950s.

Keywords: Brown v. Board of Education, Hannah Arendt, Little Rock

Suggested Citation

Morey, Maribel, Reassessing Hannah Arendt's 'Reflections on Little Rock' 1959 (August 26, 2011). Law, Culture and the Humanities, Forthcoming, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=966657

Maribel Morey (Contact Author)

Clemson University ( email )

History Department
126 Hardin Hall
Clemson, SC 29634
United States

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