09/17/2026
On this day in 1957, Louis Armstrong blew his top in his hotel room in Grand Forks, North Dakota over the Little Rock Central High School integration crisis, blasting Governor Orval Faubus for being “two-faced” and President Dwight Eisenhower for having “no guts” to let Faubus call in the National Guard in to prevent black students from integrating the high school. “The way they are treating my people in the South, the government can go to hell,” he vented. “It’s getting so bad a colored man hasn’t got any country.”
Armstrong put his entire career on the line to speak out against injustice as his September 17 North Dakota comments made headlines around the world.
Armstrong received little support at the time, instead getting more criticism from both the white and black press. Yet he never backed down, as seen in this footage shot at the height of the Little Rock controversy. Today, his stance is celebrated as a landmark moment in Civil Rights. He knew what he had done. He cut out various clipping about the incident, wrapped them in Scotch tape and stuck them in a scrapbook. We’re glad he saved them and we’re glad he spoke out. Thanks, Pops.
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