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In Topeka, Kansas in 1951a student named Linda Brown was denied entrance of the all- white elementary school. Linda’s father, Oliver Brown, then filed a class- action suit against the Board of Education stating that schools for black children were not equal to the schools for white children. In 1954, Brown Vs. Board of Education was a major foundation in the Civil Rights movement and changed things for the future education system. This Supreme Court case justified that “separate- but- equal” was not at all equal. Racial segregation of students in public school should be forbidden.

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Separate But Equal Doctrine

In 1896, the Supreme Court ruled in Plessy v. Ferguson that racially segregated public facilities were legal, so long as the facilities for Black people and whites were equal.

The ruling constitutionally sanctioned laws barring African Americans from sharing the same buses, schools and other public facilities as whites-known as "Jim Crow" laws -and established the "separate but equal" doctrine that would stand for the next six decades.

But by the early 1950s, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People ( NAACP) was working hard to challenge segregation laws in public schools, and had filed lawsuits on behalf of plaintiffs in states such as South Carolina, Virginia and Delaware.

In the case that would become most famous, a plaintiff named Oliver Brown filed a class-action suit against the Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas, in 1951, after his daughter, Linda Brown, was denied entrance to Topeka's all-white elementary schools.

In his lawsuit, Brown claimed that schools for Black children were not equal to the white schools, and that segregation violated the so-called "equal protection clause" of the 14th Amendment, which holds that no state can "deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws."

The case went before the U.S. District Court in Kansas, which agreed that public school segregation had a "detrimental effect upon the colored children" and contributed to "a sense of inferiority," but still upheld the "separate but equal" doctrine.

Brown v. Board of Education Verdict

When Brown's case and four other cases related to school segregation first came before the Supreme Court in 1952, the Court combined them into a single case under the name Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka.

Thurgood Marshall, the head of the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, served as chief attorney for the plaintiffs. (Thirteen years later, President Lyndon B. Johnson would appoint Marshall as the first Black Supreme Court justice.)

At first, the justices were divided on how to rule on school segregation, with Chief Justice Fred M. Vinson holding the opinion that the Plessy verdict should stand. But in September 1953, before Brown v. Board of Education was to be heard, Vinson died, and President Dwight D. Eisenhower replaced him with Earl Warren, then governor of California.

Displaying considerable political skill and determination, the new chief justice succeeded in engineering a unanimous verdict against school segregation the following year.

In the decision, issued on May 17, 1954, Warren wrote that "in the field of public education the doctrine of 'separate but equal' has no place," as segregated schools are "inherently unequal." As a result, the Court ruled that the plaintiffs were being "deprived of the equal protection of the laws guaranteed by the 14th Amendment."

Little Rock Nine

In its verdict, the Supreme Court did not specify how exactly schools should be integrated, but asked for further arguments about it.

In May 1955, the Court issued a second opinion in the case (known as Brown v. Board of Education II), which remanded future desegregation cases to lower federal courts and directed district courts and school boards to proceed with desegregation "with all deliberate speed."

Though well intentioned, the Court's actions effectively opened the door to local judicial and political evasion of desegregation. While Kansas and some other states acted in accordance with the verdict, many school and local officials in the South defied it.

In one major example, Governor Orval Faubus of Arkansas called out the state National Guard to prevent Black students from attending high school in Little Rock in 1957. After a tense standoff, President Eisenhower deployed federal troops, and nine students-known as the " Little Rock Nine"- were able to enter Central High School under armed guard.

Impact of Brown v. Board of Education

Though the Supreme Court's decision in Brown v. Board didn't achieve school desegregation on its own, the ruling (and the steadfast resistance to it across the South) fueled the nascent civil rights movement in the United States.

In 1955, a year after the Brown v. Board of Education decision, Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat on a Montgomery, Alabama bus. Her arrest sparked the Montgomery bus boycott and would lead to other boycotts, sit-ins and demonstrations (many of them led by Martin Luther King Jr.), in a movement that would eventually lead to the toppling of Jim Crow laws across the South.

Passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, backed by enforcement by the Justice Department, began the process of desegregation in earnest. This landmark piece of civil rights legislation was followed by the Voting Rights Act of 1965 and the Fair Housing Act of 1968.

In 1976, the Supreme Court issued another landmark decision in Runyon v. McCrary, ruling that even private, nonsectarian schools that denied admission to students on the basis of race violated federal civil rights laws.

By overturning the "separate but equal" doctrine, the Court's decision in Brown v. Board of Education had set the legal precedent that would be used to overturn laws enforcing segregation in other public facilities. But despite its undoubted impact, the historic verdict fell short of achieving its primary mission of integrating the nation's public schools.

Today, more than 60 years after Brown v. Board of Education, the debate continues over how to combat racial inequalities in the nation's school system, largely based on residential patterns and differences in resources between schools in wealthier and economically disadvantaged districts across the country.

HISTORY Vault: Black History

Sources

History - Brown v. Board of Education Re-enactment, United States Courts.
Brown v. Board of Education, The Civil Rights Movement: Volume I (Salem Press).
Cass Sunstein, "Did Brown Matter?" The New Yorker, May 3, 2004.
Brown v. Board of Education, PBS.org.
Richard Rothstein, Brown v. Board at 60, Economic Policy Institute, April 17, 2014.

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Brown v. Board of Education: Summary, Ruling & Impact | HISTORY

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Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka was a landmark 1954 Supreme Court case in which the justices ruled unanimously that racial segregation of children in public schools was unconstitutional.

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A year later in 1955, the Brown Vs. Board of Education II gave hope to the people who pushed for the first Brown Vs. Board of Education. The Brown II was put into place to display that desegregation in schools was not happening fast enough. This became an opportunity for the school system in the South to extend the process of integration and push for all schools to treat students equally.

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In From Jim Crow to Civil Rights (New York, 2004), Michael J. Klarman states that the decision made in 1955 gave hope to those who opposed the original verdict of Brown v. Board of Education a year earlier. Klarman writes that Brown II "was a solid victory for white southerners" and that "the Court did not really intend to foist integration on them any time soon" (318-19).

Klarman identifies the changes within the Supreme Court itself as a catalyst for the delay in the landmark decision of Brown v. Board of Education and Brown II as it was almost a year between these two decisions, displaying the inability to find quick way to initiate desegregating procedures. The case with young Linda Brown from Topeka, Kansas at the forefront brought an end to segregation in schools, but how the institution of that policy would come about was for Brown II to determine. In Brown II, the justices determined that taking a stance favoring gradual desegregation and a flexible implementation plan. This was not the positive result that supporters of the Brown v. Board of Education decision almost a year earlier were expecting as it did not institute immediate segregation and gave the supporters of segregation, mainly those school systems in the South, an opportunity to draw out the process of integration.

In many ways, Brown II was just as important if not more important than Brown v. Board of Education as it set into motion the sweeping decision of desegregation determined by Brown v. Board of Education and how it would be carried out in areas that still had segregated school systems. While the case was certainly a blow to the movement towards equal rights and instant desegregation of schools, it is highly likely that, according to Klarman, "even an order for immediate integration would have been bitterly resisted" (320).

While there have been numerous amounts of books and articles written encompassing the entire process of the Brown v. Board of Education case, there have been no well-known works detailing solely the Brown II decision. This is most likely because the Brown II decision is seen as an extension of the Brown v. Board of Education rather than its own separate entity. However, the Brown II decision plays a major role in the books whose foundation concerns firstly the Brown v. Board of Education decision made in 1954. Brown v. Board of Education: A Brief History with Documents by Waldo E. Martin focuses on the primary sources for its source of analysis concerning the cases which contrasts to books like Brown v. Board of Education: A Civil Rights Milestone and Its Troubled Legacy by James T. Patterson which provide more of a narrative-like style when detailing the events of the cases. Both of these works also provide the necessary background such as information on the Plessy v. Ferguson case as well as examining the context surrounding the decisions and the social environment of the time. Journal articles such as "The Impact of the Brown v. Board of Education Decision on Postsecondary Participation of African Americans" by William B. Harvey, Adia M. Harvey, and Mark King focus more on specifics as well as the lasting effects of the Brown v. Board of Education and the Brown II cases and their ability to permeate aspects of society in the modern day.

Chief Justice Earl Warren became one of the most well-known justices in American history and his era of transforming American law, especially in regards to segregation. Several standard biographies of Warren exist, with the most well-known being Earl Warren: Justice for All by Christine Compston and Earl Warren: A Public Life by G. Edward White, which cover his entire lifetime while both having major focuses on his role in Brown v. Board of Education and as head of the Warren Commission, which investigated the assassination of President John F. Kennedy.

The other judges in the case who sought unanimity in their decisions in Brown v. Board of Education and Brown II were Hugo Black, Stanley F. Reed, Felix Frankfurter, William O. Douglas, John M. Harlan, Harold H. Burton, Tom C. Clark, and Sherman Minton. All of these justices have had at least one biography written about their achievements not only concerning their times as Supreme Court justices but also in other aspects of their political careers. Two of the more well-known works are Hugo Black by Roger K. Newman and Supreme Court Justice Tom C. Clark: A Lifetime of Service by Mimi Clark Gronlund.

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Brown II (1955): The Task of Desegregation

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In From Jim Crow to Civil Rights (New York, 2004), Michael J. Klarman states that the decision made in 1955 gave hope to those who opposed the original verdict of Brown v. Board of Education a year earlier.

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National Association for the Advancement of Colored People

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National Association for the Advancement of Colored People

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In the 1940’s the NAACP put their all into changing the segregated school systems in many states. They filed a class- action lawsuit on behalf of Oliver Browns daughter, Linda. They argued that the segregation of the school was in violation of the Fourteenth Amendment.

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Brown v. Board of Education | Case, 1954, Definition, Decision, Facts, & Impact

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Brown v. Board of Education, case in which, on May 17, 1954, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled unanimously (9–0) that racial segregation in public schools was unconstitutional. It was one of the most important cases in the Court’s history, and it helped inspire the American civil rights movement of the late 1950s and ’60s.

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This case was a major step in the Civil Rights movement. After the Brown Vs. Board of Education II, in 1955, the court ordered to desegregate schools. Although it still took some time to completely desegregate the school system, Linda Brown became a figure for desegregation in her efforts to make all school equal for all students.

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Brown v Board of Education 1954 - Academy 4SC

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Case Linda Brown was a seven-year-old girl who became the face of one of the most impactful Supreme Court cases in United States history. Linda Brown attended an all-black Elementary School in Topeka, Kansas. In order to attend school each day, Linda had to cross railroad tracks and take a...

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In 1957, the Little Rock Nine were a group of Nine black students who tried to attend the all-white school, Central High School, in Little Rock, Arkansas. This was a test to see in the Brown Vs. Board of Education really worked. Unfortunately, when the first day of school came the Arkansas National Guard was called in to block the nine students from entering the high school.

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Desegregation of Schools

In its Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka decision, issued May 17, 1954, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that segregation of America's public schools was unconstitutional.

Until the court's decision, many states across the nation had mandatory segregation laws, or Jim Crow laws, requiring African American and white children to attend separate schools. Resistance to the ruling was so widespread that the court issued a second decision in 1955, known as Brown II, ordering school districts to integrate "with all deliberate speed."

Little Rock Central High School

In response to the Brown decisions and pressure from the local chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People ( NAACP), the Little Rock, Arkansas, school board adopted a plan for gradual integration of its schools.

The first institutions to integrate would be the high schools, beginning in September 1957. Among these was Little Rock Central High School, which opened in 1927 and was originally called Little Rock Senior High School.

Two pro-segregation groups formed to oppose the plan: The Capital Citizens Council and the Mother's League of Central High School.

Who Were the Little Rock Nine?

Despite the virulent opposition, nine students registered to be the first African Americans to attend Central High School. Minnijean Brown, Elizabeth Eckford, Ernest Green, Thelma Mothershed, Melba Patillo, Gloria Ray, Terrence Roberts, Jefferson Thomas and Carlotta Walls had been recruited by Daisy Gaston Bates, president of the Arkansas NAACP and co-publisher of the Arkansas State Press, an influential African American newspaper.

Daisy Bates and others from the Arkansas NAACP carefully vetted the group of students and determined they all possessed the strength and determination to face the resistance they would encounter. In the weeks prior to the start of the new school year, the students participated in intensive counseling sessions guiding them on what to expect once classes began and how to respond to anticipated hostile situations.

The group soon became famous as the Little Rock Nine.

Orval Faubus

On September 2, 1957, Governor Orval Faubus announced that he would call in the Arkansas National Guard to prevent the African American students' entry to Central High, claiming this action was for the students' own protection. In a televised address, Faubus insisted that violence and bloodshed might break out if Black students were allowed to enter the school.

The Mother's League held a sunrise service at the school on September 3 as a protest against integration. But that afternoon, federal judge Ronald Davies issued a ruling that desegregation would continue as planned the next day.

Elizabeth Eckford

The Little Rock Nine arrived for the first day of school at Central High on September 4, 1957. Eight arrived together, driven by Bates.

Elizabeth Eckford's family, however, did not have a telephone, and Bates could not reach her to let her know of the carpool plans. Therefore, Eckford arrived alone.

The Arkansas National Guard, under orders of Governor Faubus, prevented any of the Little Rock Nine from entering the doors of Central High. One of the most enduring images from this day is a photograph of Eckford, alone with a notebook in her hand, stoically approaching the school as a crowd of hostile and screaming white students and adults surround her.

Eckford later recalled that one of the women spat on her. The image was printed and broadcast widely in the United States and abroad, bringing the Little Rock controversy to national and international attention.

Ronald Davies

In the following weeks, federal judge Ronald Davies began legal proceedings against Governor Faubus, and President Dwight D. Eisenhower attempted to persuade Faubus to remove the National Guard and let the Little Rock Nine enter the school.

Judge Davies ordered the Guard removed on September 20, and the Little Rock Police Department took over to maintain order. The police escorted the nine African American students into the school on September 23, through an angry mob of some 1,000 white protesters gathered outside. Amidst ensuing rioting, the police removed the nine students.

The following day, President Eisenhower sent in 1,200 members of the U.S. Army's 101st Airborne Division from Fort Campbell, Kentucky, and placed them in charge of the 10,000 National Guardsmen on duty. Escorted by the troops, the Little Rock Nine attended their first full day of classes on September 25.

Numerous legal challenges to integration continued throughout the year, and Faubus repeatedly expressed his wish that the Little Rock Nine be removed from Central High.

Although several of the Black students had positive experiences on their first day of school, according to a September 25, 1957, report in The New York Times, they experienced routine harassment and even violence throughout the rest of the year.

Melba Patillo, for instance, was kicked, beaten and had acid thrown in her face. At one point, white students burned an African American effigy in a vacant lot across from the school. Gloria Ray was pushed down a flight of stairs, and the Little Rock Nine were barred from participating in extracurricular activities.

Minnijean Brown was expelled from Central High School in February 1958 for retaliating against the attacks. Harassment went beyond the students: Gloria Ray's mother was fired from her job with the State of Arkansas when she refused to remove her daughter from the school. The 101st Airborne and the National Guard remained at Central High School for the duration of the year.

Ernest Green

On May 25, 1958, Ernest Green, the only senior among the Little Rock Nine, became the first African American graduate of Central High.

In September 1958, one year after Central High was integrated, Governor Faubus closed all of Little Rock's high schools for the entire year, pending a public vote, to prevent African American attendance. Little Rock citizens voted 19,470 to 7,561 against integration and the schools remained closed.

Other than Green, the rest of the Little Rock Nine completed their high school careers via correspondence or at other high schools across the country. Eckford joined the Army and later earned her General Education Equivalency diploma. Little Rock's high schools reopened in August 1959.

Did you know? Civil rights leader Martin Luther King, Jr. attended graduation ceremonies at Central High School in May 1958 to see Ernest Green, the only senior among the Little Rock Nine, receive his diploma.

Little Rock Nine Aftermath

Several of the Little Rock Nine went on to distinguished careers.

Green served as assistant secretary of the federal Department of Labor under President Jimmy Carter. Brown worked as deputy assistant secretary for workforce diversity in the Department of the Interior under President Bill Clinton. Patillo worked as a reporter for NBC.

The group has been widely recognized for their significant role in the civil rights movement. In 1999, President Clinton awarded each member of the group the Congressional Gold Medal. The nine also all received personal invitations to attend the inauguration of President Barack Obama in 2009.

Jefferson Thomas became the first of the Little Rock Nine to die when he succumbed to pancreatic cancer at the age of 67 on September 5, 2010. After graduating from Central High, Thomas served in the Army in Vietnam, earned a business degree and worked as an accountant for private companies and the Pentagon.

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Little Rock Nine - Definition, Names & Facts | HISTORY

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The Little Rock Nine were a group of nine Black students who enrolled at formerly all-white Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas, in September 1957. Their attendance at the school was a test of Brown v. Board of Education, a landmark 1954 Supreme Court ruling that declared segregation in public schools unconstitutional.

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After the Governor of Arkansas sent over their National Guard to stop the nine students from entering the school, President Dwight D. Eisenhower got involved. He sent 1,000 army troopers to Little Rock to implement the court order. The president televised and explained that he has taken action and will prevent anyone from stopping the students to enter. On September 25th, the Little Rock Nine entered the school with an army escort.

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Under escort from the U.S. Army's 101st Airborne Division, nine black students enter the all-white Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas on this day in 1957. 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 federalised the Arkansas National Guard and sent 1,000 army paratroopers to Little Rock to enforce the court order.

On 17 May 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 Coloured 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 30 August. On 2 September, 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 4 September. 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 20 September 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 23 September, 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 24 September, 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 federalised 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 25 September, 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 27 May 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.

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Nine black students escorted under armed guard into all-white school

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Under escort from the U.S. Army's 101st Airborne Division, nine black students enter the all-white Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas on this day in 1957. Three weeks earlier, Arkansas Governor Orval Faubus had surrounded the school with National Guard troops to prevent its federal court-ordered racial integration.

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Little Rock Central High School is a landmark that will go down in history. It is a reminder of the segregation in America and the courageous nine students who fought to integrate public schools. The Little Rock school system is major milestone in the Civil Rights Movement. This High School still operates today

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Exterior of Little Rock Central High School, completed in 1927
Courtesy of Antonius Armond, Flickr's Creative Commons

Little Rock Central High School is a powerful reminder of racial segregation in the United States and of the courage required to integrate the nation's public schools. Completed in 1927, the school is a typical Gothic Revival style building, though its role in history is anything but typical. Today, visitors can tour a key site in the struggle for racial equality to learn about the "Little Rock Nine" and the extraordinary story of what it took to integrate Little Rock Central High School and desegregate public education in the United States.

Although Reconstruction-era amendments to the United States Constitution explicitly extended equality under law to African Americans, equality was not a reality of everyday life because of organized segregationist policies. In 1954, a landmark Supreme Court decision, Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Kansasdeclared that State laws that established separate public schools for black and white students were unconstitutional. This ruling overturned earlier Supreme Court decisions going back to the 1896 Plessy v. Ferguson, setting the stage for widespread social change through educational reform. In Brown, the court held that, in the words of Chief Justice Earl Warren, "in the field of public education the doctrine of 'separate but equal' has no place." Undoing an ingrained system formed on a racist foundation involved a major change in attitudes, customs and traditions. Sensing that a deadline was imperative to force this change, the Supreme Court called for integrating education with "all deliberate speed."

Members of the "Little Rock Nine" officially cut the ribbon to open the new visitor center, September 24, 2007
Courtesy of the National Park Service, Cordell Anderson

One Supreme Court case could not instantly change racist thinking and practices. "All deliberate speed" took on wildly different meanings as some southern States actively resisted the creation of integrated educational systems. In Little Rock, the school board called for the gradual integration of its schools beginning with the 1957-1958 school year. As the summer of 1957 ended, it appeared that the desegregation of all-white Central High School would be confrontational. Nine black students decided to attend Central rather than continuing at what had been the all-black Horace Mann High School. Thelma Mothershed Wair, Minnijean Brown Trickey, Jefferson Thomas, Terrence Roberts, Carlotta Walls LaNier, Gloria Ray Karlmark, Ernest Green, Elizabeth Eckford, and Melba Pattillo Beals placed themselves and their families on the front line in the struggle for civil rights in America by choosing to integrate Central High School.

Members of the "Little Rock Nine" arrive at Little Rock Central High School under federal troop escort, September 1957
Courtesy of the National Park Service

Realizing that integration was increasingly likely, a number of groups began to fight against the integration of Central. On August 29, 1957, two white-led groups, the Capitol Citizens' Council and the Mothers' League of Little Rock Central High School, went to court and were able to prevent the implementation of the plan for integration. Judge Ronald N. Davis overturned this decision in Federal court the next day. Not long after, the Governor of Arkansas, Orval Faubus, claimed that tensions over the possibility of integration and the potential for violence in Little Rock were beyond the ability of the local authorities to control. On September 2, he ordered the Arkansas National Guard into the city. Two days later the school year began and the nine black students attempted to enter Central High School, but the National Guardsmen turned them away. Little Rock was in crisis and the nation watched.

"Little Rock Nine" member Terrence Roberts faces Arkansas National Guard Troops after being turned away from Little Rock Central High School, September 4, 1957
Courtesy of the National Park Service

Despite the willingness of the local authorities to enforce the Federal judgment requiring the immediate enrollment of the nine black students at Central High School, Governor Faubus used his authority to command the National Guard troops to prevent this from happening. Judge Davis soon ordered the governor and leading guardsmen to stand down and permit the students to attend school. On September 23, guarded by State and local police, the "Little Rock Nine" attended their first classes at Central High School, but rioting outside cut their first school day short. The following day the mayor of Little Rock urgently requested assistance from President Eisenhower to prevent a rumored gathering of white supremacists from occurring. Eisenhower responded immediately by taking the extraordinary step of assuming Federal control of the State's militia. For the first time since the 1860s, the threat of violence was so great that the Federal Government was required to enforce the law for a State. Ordered by President Eisenhower, the 101st Airborne Division of the US Army escorted the students to their first full day of school, September 25, 1957. These troops stayed at the school for the remainder of the school year guarding the students as they moved between classes. Despite this apparent success, Governor Faubus closed all public high schools in the City of Little Rock for the 1958 to 1959 school year.

The significance of Little Rock Central High School is both local and national. Locally what happened there chronicles the movement to integrate the Little Rock school system but the integration of the school was also a milestone nationally in the Civil Rights Movement. Above all, the actions of the Federal Government in enforcing the Brown decision showed that in the long struggle for civil rights, the rule of law would be maintained by any means necessary, including having the Executive Branch step in to support a decision of the US Supreme Court by force. In 2007, Federal monitoring of the school districts in Little Rock ceased after the settlement of lawsuits related to the actions of 1957 and the satisfying of the court that race was no longer an obstacle to obtaining education.

Visitors to Little Rock High School National Historic Site can immerse themselves in the powerful story of the integration of public education in the United States. The school is still an operating high school, so visitors cannot tour it on their own. Rangers lead guided tours of the high school by advance reservation for groups of 10 or more. The visitor center offers permanent interactive exhibits, audio visual programs, and the opportunity to listen to recorded oral histories. Rangers conduct bicycle tours of Little Rock to interpret the story of the Civil Rights Movement in the city. There are also special events.
Little Rock High School National Historic Site is a unit of the National Park System and a National Historic Landmark. Little Rock Central High School is located at 2120 Daisy L. Gatson Bates Dr. in Little Rock, AR. The visitor center is opposite the school building on the northeast corner of Daisy L. Gatson Bates Dr. and Park St. The visitor center is open year round from 9:00am to 4:30pm with the exception of Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Years Day. For more information, visit the National Park Service Little Rock Central High School National Historic Site website or call 501-374-1975. Because Central is still a functioning high school, reservations are required to tour the school. A reservation may be made by calling the number listed above. Seasonal bicycle tours highlighting Little Rock's role in the civil rights movement may also be booked by calling the same number. The school is the subject of an online lesson plan From Canterbury to Little Rock: The Struggle for Educational Equality for African Americans. The lesson plan has been produced by the National Park Service's Teaching with Historic Places program, which offers a series of online classroom-ready lesson plans on registered historic places. To learn more, visit the Teaching with Historic Places homepage. More information on Little Rock Central High School may also be found in the National Park Service Civil Rights Travel Itinerary.

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Arkansas: Little Rock Central High School National Historic Site (U.S. National Park Service)

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Little Rock Central High School is a powerful reminder of racial segregation in the United States and of the courage required to integrate the nation's public schools. Completed in 1927, the school is a typical Gothic Revival style building, though its role in history is anything but typical.

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The nine students, Minnijean Brown, Ernest Green, Thelma Mothershed, Gloria Ray, Melba Pattillo, Terrence Roberts, Jefferson Thomas, Carlotta Walls, and Elizabeth Eckford, became a long lasting legacy in the desegregation of schools. They helped to test if the Brown Vs. Board of Education really made an impact. The Little Rock nine declared that segregation in public schools was unconstitutional.

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The Lasting Impact of the Little Rock Nine

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On September 25, 1957, nine Black students courageously started their first full day at an all-white high school in Little Rock, Arkansas, amid an angry mob of students, pro-segregationist groups and a defiant governor.

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History.com Editors. (2009, October 27). Brown v. Board of education. HISTORY. https://www.history.com/topics/black-history/brown-v-board-of-education-of-topeka

Brown II (1955): The task of Desegregation | History 404: US constitution seminar. (2010, November 17). Dickinson Blogs | Blogs for the Dickinson College community. https://blogs.dickinson.edu/hist-404pinsker/2010/11/17/brown-ii-the-task-of-desegregation-2/

Brown V board of education 1954. (2021, May 2). Academy 4SC. https://academy4sc.org/video/brown-v-board-of-education-1954/?hsa_ad=476046916501&hsa_tgt=kwd-297623476210&hsa_mt=b&hsa_acc=2755491261&hsa_grp=117565188852&hsa_ver=3&hsa_src=g&hsa_cam=11498090109&utm_campaign&hsa_net=adwords&hsa_kw=topeka%20vs%20board%20of%20education

Brown v. Board of education of Topeka. (n.d.). Encyclopedia Britannica. https://www.britannica.com/event/Brown-v-Board-of-Education-of-Topeka

History.com Editors. (2010, January 29). Little Rock Nine. HISTORY. https://www.history.com/topics/black-history/central-high-school-integration

Nine Black students escorted under armed guard into all-white school. (n.d.). Sky HISTORY TV channel. https://www.history.co.uk/this-day-in-history/25-september/nine-black-students-escorted-under-armed-guard-into-all-white

Arkansas: Little Rock central high school national historic site (U.S. National Park Service). (2017, August 4). NPS.gov (U.S. National Park Service). https://www.nps.gov/articles/littlerock.htm

Biography.com Editors. (2017, September 22). The lasting impact of the Little Rock Nine. Biography. https://www.biography.com/news/little-rock-nine-60th-anniversary