September 23 will go down as | sad day for Little Rock and for the United - States. A challenge which cannot be avoided has been issued to those believing in law and order. Little Rock and Arkansas j may need help from the outside. The city has 110,000 residents of which some 25,000 are Negro. Thus a small proportion took part in the riots of the last two weeks. The others must be confused and terribly concerned. Little Rock had already made some progress in desegregation. Negro doctors are admitted to the county medical society. State-supported colleges in Arkansas are completely integrated. The city buses have been desegregated. Some ministerial associations have been merged racially. Negroes are serving on the powerful State Democratic Central Committee and in Little Rock the 8,000 registered Negro voters can hold a balance of power in election contests. WHEN THE Supreme Court ruled in 1954 that segregation must be abolished, most community leaders declared they would abide by the law of the land and work out an acceptable integration plan. Little Rock had a reputation for good will and for being a moderately liberal city, especially considering its nearness to the Deep South. The integration plan was worked out in a two-year period of painstaking preparation and the public kept informed of developments by the two newspapers. The beginning was to be the admission of nine Negroes in all-white Central High School—nine Negroes among 2,000 whites —integration of only nine in a school system of 20,000 pupils in 35 institutions. But Faubus called out the troops before the plan was even tried. It is impossible to predict when the wounds of this unhappy autumn will heal and whether the scars ever will disappear.