Little Rock Rocked by Integration
Outside Little Rock
Crowds of hundreds to one thousand are yelling and screaming racial slurs for hours as Little Rock's own Central High School prepare for the first nine African American students to enter its doors. Its been only weeks since the United States Supreme Court ruled in Brown vs. Board of Education that public school segregation was unconstitutional, and these nine are here to test that ruling. On September 4, 1957, Governor Orval Faubus called in the National Guard to refuse the students' entry into the school. Legal action towards Governor Faubus has been threatened. Now, only weeks later, President Dwight D. Eisenhower has sent in federal troops to personally escort these nine students into the school. These courageous nine: Minnijean Brown, Elizabeth Eckford, Ernest Green, Thelma Mothershed, Melba Patillo, Gloria Ray, Terrance Roberts, Jefferson Thomas, and Carlotta Walls will go down in history as the Little Rock Nine.