CENTRAL HIGH SCHOOL INTEGRATED:

September 25, 1957

Under escort from the U.S. Army's 101st Airborne Division, nine black students
enter all-white Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas. Three weeks
earlier, Arkansas Governor Orval Faubus had surrounded the school with National
Guard troops to prevent its federal court-ordered racial integration. After a
tense standoff, President Dwight D. Eisenhower federalized the Arkansas National
Guard and sent 1,000 army paratroopers to Little Rock to enforce the court
order. On May 17, 1954, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled unanimously in Brown v.
Board of Education of Topeka that racial segregation in educational facilities
was unconstitutional. Five days later, the Little Rock School Board issued a
statement saying it would comply with the decision when the Supreme Court
outlined the method and time frame in which desegregation should be
implemented.Arkansas was at the time among the more progressive Southern states
in regard to racial issues. The University of Arkansas School of Law was
integrated in 1949, and the Little Rock Public Library in 1951. Even before the
Supreme Court ordered integration to proceed "with all deliberate speed," the
Little Rock School Board in 1955 unanimously adopted a plan of integration to
begin in 1957 at the high school level. The National Association for the
Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) filed suit, arguing the plan was too
gradual, but a federal judge dismissed the suit, saying that the school board
was acting in "utmost good faith." Meanwhile, Little Rock's public buses were
desegregated. By 1957, seven out of Arkansas' eight state universities were
integrated.In the spring of 1957, there were 517 black students who lived in the
Central High School district. Eighty expressed an interest in attending Central
in the fall, and they were interviewed by the Little Rock School Board, which
narrowed down the number of candidates to 17. Eight of those students later
decided to remain at all-black Horace Mann High School, leaving the "Little Rock
Nine" to forge their way into Little Rock's premier high school.In August 1957,
the newly formed Mother's League of Central High School won a temporary
injunction from the county chancellor to block integration of the school,
charging that it "could lead to violence." Federal District Judge Ronald Davies
nullified the injunction on August 30. On September 2, Governor Orval Faubus--a
staunch segregationist--called out the Arkansas National Guard to surround
Central High School and prevent integration, ostensibly to prevent the bloodshed
he claimed desegregation would cause. The next day, Judge Davies ordered
integrated classes to begin on September 4.That morning, 100 armed National
Guard troops encircled Central High School. A mob of 400 white civilians
gathered and turned ugly when the black students began to arrive, shouting
racial epithets and threatening the teenagers with violence. The National Guard
troops refused to let the black students pass and used their clubs to control
the crowd. One of the nine, 15-year-old Elizabeth Eckford, was surrounded by the
mob, which threatened to lynch her. She was finally led to safety by a
sympathetic white woman.Little Rock Mayor Woodrow Mann condemned Faubus'
decision to call out the National Guard, but the governor defended his action,
reiterating that he did so to prevent violence. The governor also stated that
integration would occur in Little Rock when and if a majority of people chose to
support it. Faubus' defiance of Judge Davies' court order was the first major
test of Brown v. Board of Education and the biggest challenge of the federal
government's authority over the states since the Reconstruction Era.The standoff
continued, and on September 20 Judge Davies ruled that Faubus had used the
troops to prevent integration, not to preserve law and order as he claimed.
Faubus had no choice but to withdraw the National Guard troops. Authority over
the explosive situation was put in the hands of the Little Rock Police
Department.On September 23, as a mob of 1,000 whites milled around outside
Central High School, the nine black students managed to gain access to a side
door. However, the mob became unruly when it learned the black students were
inside, and the police evacuated them out of fear for their safety. That
evening, President Eisenhower issued a special proclamation calling for
opponents of the federal court order to "cease and desist." On September 24,
Little Rock's mayor sent a telegram to the president asking him to send troops
to maintain order and complete the integration process. Eisenhower immediately
federalized the Arkansas National Guard and approved the deployment of U.S.
troops to Little Rock. That evening, from the White House, the president
delivered a nationally televised address in which he explained that he had taken
the action to defend the rule of law and prevent "mob rule" and "anarchy." On
September 25, the Little Rock Nine entered the school under heavily armed
guard.Troops remained at Central High School throughout the school year, but
still the black students were subjected to verbal and physical assaults from a
faction of white students. Melba Patillo, one of the nine, had acid thrown in
her eyes, and Elizabeth Eckford was pushed down a flight of stairs. The three
male students in the group were subjected to more conventional beatings.
Minnijean Brown was suspended after dumping a bowl of chili over the head of a
taunting white student. She was later suspended for the rest of the year after
continuing to fight back. The other eight students consistently turned the other
cheek. On May 27, 1958, Ernest Green, the only senior in the group, became the
first black to graduate from Central High School.Governor Faubus continued to
fight the school board's integration plan, and in September 1958 he ordered
Little Rock's three high schools closed rather than permit integration. Many
Little Rock students lost a year of education as the legal fight over
desegregation continued. In 1959, a federal court struck down Faubus'
school-closing law, and in August 1959 Little Rock's white high schools opened a
month early with black students in attendance. All grades in Little Rock public
schools were finally integrated in 1972.