I'm big fan of Louis Armstrong (who's on my short list for Greatest American Ever), so I was aware of his famous interview in the midst of the Little Rock integration fight in 1957, when he briefly abandoned his jolly entertainer persona to call Eisenhower "gutless" and declare, "The way they are treating my people in the South, the government can go to hell." What I didn't know until today was that he said this in an interview with the Grand Forks Herald.
Who knew? NY Times: The Day Louis Armstrong Made Noise
Bonus North Dakota connection: Ronald Davies, the federal judge who ordered the integration was also from Grand Forks, by way of Crookston.
1 comment:
Awesome story. Thanks!
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