# Executive Order 10730 **Signed September 24, 1957 (22 FR 7628, published September 25, 1957).** Eisenhower's order federalizing the Arkansas National Guard and authorizing the use of the armed forces to enforce a federal desegregation order at Little Rock Central High School. It is the modern template for domestic military deployment under the [[Insurrection Act]], and the instrument at the centre of the [[Little Rock Crisis]]. ## What it does The order is short — four sections — and every one of them matters. **The recitals** quote **Proclamation No. 3204**, issued the previous day, in full. That proclamation found that persons in Arkansas "individually and in unlawful assemblages, combinations, and conspiracies, have willfully obstructed the enforcement of orders of the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Arkansas," that the obstruction "makes it impracticable to enforce such laws by the ordinary course of judicial proceedings," and that it "constitutes a denial of the equal protection of the laws." It commanded those obstructing to disperse. The EO then recites that **the command was not obeyed** — the statutory predicate for what follows. **Section 1** authorizes and directs the Secretary of Defense to order into active federal service "any or all of the units of the National Guard of the United States **and of the Air National Guard** of the United States within the State of Arkansas," to serve "for an indefinite period and until relieved by appropriate orders." **Section 2** directs the Secretary to take all appropriate steps to enforce the district court's orders, using the units federalized under Section 1. **Section 3** separately authorizes the Secretary "to use such of the armed forces of the United States as he may deem necessary" — the authority under which roughly 1,000 paratroopers of the 101st Airborne Division were sent. **Section 4** permits delegation to the Secretary of the Army or the Air Force. ## The authority cited Both the proclamation and the order invoke **Chapter 15 of Title 10, "particularly sections 332, 333 and 334"** — the [[Insurrection Act]], renumbered in 2016 as 10 U.S.C. §§ 252, 253 and 254 — plus 3 U.S.C. § 301 for delegation. Naming the sections is worth noticing, because later orders do not. The 1957 order identifies precisely which authorities it rests on and recites the factual findings each requires. Compare [[Executive Order 12804]], the 1992 Los Angeles order, which cites "Chapter 15 of Title 10" and stops there. ## Two structural features **The two-step is the statute's design, not a formality.** The Insurrection Act requires the President first to issue a proclamation commanding the insurgents to disperse, and only then to use force. Proclamation 3204 on 23 September, EO 10730 on 24 September. Every subsequent Insurrection Act invocation follows the same sequence. **Federalization removes the Guard from the governor, which was the operative effect.** Governor [[Orval Faubus]] had used the Arkansas Guard against the court order in early September; Section 1 took the entire Arkansas Guard and Air Guard out of his hands. The soldiers did not change. The chain of command did — the distinction mapped at [[National Guard Federalization Flow]]. > [!note] Dating discrepancy, flagged not resolved > The National Archives' catalogue citation for the document reads "Executive Order 10730, September 23, 1957," and its milestone-document headline gives the same date. The transcript itself is signed "THE WHITE HOUSE, September 24, 1957," and the Federal Register publication is 25 September. The 23rd is the date of **Proclamation 3204**, which the order quotes; the catalogue line appears to conflate the two. This page follows the document. ## See also - [[Little Rock Crisis]] — the confrontation this order ended - [[Insurrection Act]] — the authority, and its full invocation history - [[Executive Order 12804]] — the 1992 counterpart, and what changed in thirty-five years - [[National Guard Federalization Flow]] — what federalization does to a unit's legal status - [[Orval Faubus]] · [[Dwight D. Eisenhower]] · [[Brown v. Board of Education]]