Civil Rights Movement: EOTO

The Little Rock Nine were a group of nine African American students who enrolled an all-white Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas, in September 1957. In the Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka decision, issued May 17, 1954, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that segregation of public schools was unconstitutional. These nine students wanted to put this ruling to the test and see if they can attend school without being forced out.

During the first day of classes, Governor Orval Faubus called in the Arkansas National Guard to block the black students’ entry into the high school. President Eisenhower ordered the 101st Airborne Division into Little Rock to insure the safety of the "Little Rock Nine" and that the rulings of the Supreme Court were upheld. Woodrow Wilson Mann, the mayor of Little Rock, was the person who asked President Eisenhower to send federal troops to enforce integration and protect the nine students. The school board agreed to comply with the high courts ruling. Virgil Blossom, the Superintendent of Schools, submitted a plan of gradual integration to the school board on May 24, 1955, which the board approved.