“Pages of history” features excerpts from The News Journal archives including the Wilmington Morning News, The Morning News and the Evening Journal.
Sept. 5, 1957, Wilmington Morning News
Arkansas governor fears arrest after blocking school integration
Little Rock, Ark. – Gov. Orval Faubus sent a telegram last night to President Eisenhower saying, “I am reliably informed that federal authorities in Little Rock have this day been discussing plans to take into custody by force the head of a sovereign state.”
At Newport, R.I., where the President is vacationing, White House press secretary James C. Hagerty said he has not been informed about Gov. Faubus’ telegram, or knows if such a message was received by Eisenhower….
The governor’s announcement came on the heels of other developments in the explosive situation, which threatened to burgeon into a clash of federal versus state powers of historic proportions.
At Washington, Attorney General Brownell announced that the “investigative facilities of the FBI” have been assigned to gather facts on Faubus blocking Black pupils’ admittance to Central High School here by the use of National Guardsmen. The FBI agents will report to federal Judge Ronald N. Davies, who ordered compliance with a school board plan for admitting some blacks to the previously all-white school.
Little Rock Mayor Woodrow Mann issued a statement blasting the governor for using the troops to enforce school segregation. Mann accused Faubus, whose Guardsmen barred nine Black students from enrolling at Central High, of creating tensions where none existed before….
Catch up on history:News Journal archives, week of May 29
Sept. 6, 1947, Wilmington Morning News
$1 per pound butter looms as commodity prices soar
Butter at a dollar a pound in retail stores loomed today as food commodities again surged upward in the nation’s primary markets….
Advancing along with butter were such essential items as eggs, lard, hogs and grains. Several commodities soared to prices never before attained.
Aside from heavy consumer demand, chief responsibility for the current upturn was placed mainly on the mid-summer drought in the Midwest and its damaging of the corn crop, used to feed livestock and poultry. Another outcome of the heat wave was ruined pastures, which took away one source of food supplies for cows.
Butter, selling at 83 cents a pound wholesale for best grades, has advanced 25 cents since the low on April 22. Dealers said the hot summer has diverted milk away from butter and into ice cream….
Eggs, which brought 44 cents a dozen wholesale June 17, sold here today at 59 cents. Consumers, shying away from high meat prices, are creating a terrific demand for eggs….
Recent inflation news:Smaller grocery stores deal with rising costs
Sept. 7, 1972, The Morning News
More terrorists sought after murders at Munich Olympics
The 20th Olympic Games paused yesterday in Munich for a somber tribute to the 11 Israeli athletes murdered by Palestinian Arabs, while across West Germany police hunted for 15 other Arabs suspected of plotting new acts of terror in the country.
Thousands of athletes, coaches and spectators sat quietly in the track and field stadium at a memorial service for the Israelis.
As the world registered shock and outrage at the bloody events of Tuesday, the International Olympic Committee decided the $657 million games must go on. A few hours after those at the memorial funeral service moved out of the stadium, the athletes moved into their own arenas for team handball, weightlifting and volleyball….
“I would have been in favor of cancellation,” said Shmuel Lalkin, chief of the Israeli team and one of those who managed to escape when Arab guerillas shot their way into the Israeli quarters in the Olympic Village Tuesday, killing two men.
The Arabs took nine hostages and killed all of them during an airport shootout with West German police 18 ½ hours later. Five guerillas were shot dead in the airport and one policeman died. Three Arabs were captured alive, two of them wounded, at the airport….
Sept. 9, 1957, Wilmington Morning News
Gibson, Anderson win national tennis titles
Althea Gibson, the pride of Harlem, made good on a seven-year quest for the U.S. women’s tennis title, and a jut-jawed Queenslander named Malcolm Anderson emerged as the newest of Australia’s court killers for the men’s title.
Miss Gibson, recently crowned Wimbledon queen, became the first black to win a major American tennis championship when she routed Louise Brough of Beverly Hills, Calif., before a crowd of 12,000 Sept. 8 at West Side Stadium, 6-3, 6-2.
Anderson – unseeded, unnoticed and unawed – stunned the gallery with a demonstration of rocket-like shot making in crushing Ashley Cooper, Australian champion and top-seeded favorite, 10-8, 7-5, 6-4….
Delaware tennis news:Top girls singles title goes down to the wire in DIAA Tennis Championships
Sept. 10, 1997, The News Journal
Richie Ashburn, Phils legend, dies
For nearly half a century, Richie Ashburn’s name has been woven into the hearts of Phillies fans as he thrilled them with his bat and glove and later amused them with his dry wit in the broadcast booth.
The Hall of Fame center fielder for the 1950 Whiz Kids and one of the most popular figures in the team’s history, died Sept. 9 of a heart attack hours after broadcasting a Phillies game in New York. He was 70….
Reach reporter Ben Mace at rmace@gannett.com.
