The Women's Emergency Committee to Open Our Schools (WEC) was an organization formed by a group of socially prominent white women in the city of Little Rock, Arkansas during the Little Rock Crisis in 1958. The organization advocated for the integration of the Little Rock public school system and was a major obstacle to Governor Orval Faubus's efforts to prevent racial integration. The women spoke out in favor of a special election to remove segregationists from the Little Rock school board.
Background
After the U.S. Supreme Court issued its Brown v. Board of Education on May 17, 1954, segregated schools were ruled to be unconstitutional. The NAACP soon signed up nine high-achieving black students, the Little Rock Nine, for attendance at Little Rock Central High School, a previously all-white school. After the school became the site of demonstrations and protests on September 4, 1957, Arkansas Governor Orval Faubus deployed the Arkansas National Guard to the school to prevent the students from entering, contradicting the Supreme Court and the wishes of the school district. The crisis escalated with Faubus ordering all public schools in the city closed, rather than allowing the integration of the nine students.
Creation
In response to the crisis, Adolphine Terry, Vivion Brewer, and Velma Powell formed the Women's Emergency Committee to Open Our Schools (WEC). Terry, then a 75-year-old woman, was a Vassar graduate, the widow of Congressman David D. Terry, and highly influential in her community. Brewer, a Smith College graduate, had founded Little Rock's orchestra and library, and was the wife of Senator Joe T. Robinson's nephew and the daughter of a former Little Rock mayor.
Terry organized the first meeting in her home on September 16, 1958, which was attended by 58 women; it would expand to 1400 by May, the majority of whom were white, wealthy, and educated. This collective wealth insulated them from the economic ramifications of vocal opposition to desegregation faced by pro-integration businessmen and newspapers, and their husbands were not held accountable for the actions of their wives. Nonetheless, the women faced public opposition ranging from harassment, insults, and death threats delivered in phone calls and letters. Though envisioned by its founders as an interracial organization advocating for full integration, membership of the organization feared the position would harm its public support. The group positioned itself as a political group dedicated to re-opening schools, and maintained a primarily white membership.
The WEC was active in encouraging Little Rock voters to vote for integration as a means to end the crisis during a special election ordered by Governor Faubus. The group organized phone trees and car pools for voters, but the first election was a failure for the WEC. The WEC responded by putting public pressure on white men in the community, lobbying business leaders and later publishing The Little Rock Report on the economic impact of the crisis. The organization also created a "SEX" committee designed to create a charm offensive to lure male community leaders and businessmen to be more vocal against segregation; the committee once encouraged women to withhold sex from their husbands, though it is unclear how serious the suggestion was.
The WEC was the first white organization to speak out against segregation in Little Rock, hosting a short televised panel among its members and later organizing a televised panel of local ministers.
Campaigns
School board elections
After the resignation of five school board members, the WEC started a signature campaign to recruit moderate and liberal business leaders to run for the positions. The WEC managed to achieve an evenly-divided school board in the election, though their role in the campaign and their organization of the slate was kept secret to avoid negative associations with the candidates. The deadlocked schoolboard would later force a recall election.