Little Rock Nine

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Image:AR Little Rock Nine.jpg Image:Little Rock Nine thedance.jpg

The Little Rock Nine is the common term applied to the nine African-American students who were prevented from attending Little Rock Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas during 1957.

The integration crisis was a major event during the American civil rights movement. Earlier in 1957, the Little Rock school board had voted to integrate their school system. The decision was not expected to meet much resistance since Arkansas was considered a fairly progressive southern state. A crisis erupted, however, when Governor of Arkansas Orval Faubus called up the Arkansas National Guard on September 4 to prevent the Little Rock Nine from attending Central High. The students tried again without success to attend on September 23, 1957. The next day, September 24, President Dwight D. Eisenhower deployed elements of the 101st Airborne Division to Little Rock to protect the students. The students were admitted, but endured a year of physical and verbal abuse. The next year, 1958, Little Rock closed its public schools to avoid integration.

During their ordeal the Little Rock Nine were advised by Little Rock journalist and activist Daisy Bates. In 1996, seven of the Little Rock Nine appeared on the Oprah Winfrey Show. They came face to face with a few of the white students who tormented them as well as one student who befriended them.

Little Rock Central High School still functions as part of the Little Rock School District and now houses a Civil Rights Museum to commemorate the events of 1957. The Little Rock Nine were awarded the Congressional Gold Medal of Honor on November 9, 1999.

The students referred to as the Little Rock Nine were:

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Political Background

Governor Faubus' decision was most likely politically, rather than racially, motivated. In 1956 Faubus indicated that he would investigate bringing Arkansas into compliance with the Brown decision. However, this idea had significant opposition from the more conservative wing of the Arkansas Democratic Party, which controlled politics in that state at the time. If Faubus showed support for integration he would lose support from that wing of the party and would likely have been defeated in the upcoming primary in 1958. Thus, Faubus ordered the Arkansas National Guard to block the students from entering the school.

This act was in defiance of the orders of the sitting judge, Judge Ronald N. Davies, and the United States Supreme Court's ruling in Brown v. Board of Education (1954) that called for the racial desegregation of public schools with all deliberate speed. Faubus' order set him on a collision course with President Dwight D. Eisenhower, who was determined to make certain that Judge Davies' decision to exercise "more speed and less deliberation," was not flouted by Faubus or any other individual.

Eisenhower federalized the National Guard and ordered them to return to their barracks. Eisenhower's sending in U. S. Army troops was considered by many southerners a second invasion by Federal troops. This feeling would manifest itself many times, such as the intervention of the US Marshals to ensure that the University of Mississippi would allow African-American student James Meredith to integrate that institution in 1960. The result was mob violence not only against the students, but also against the so-called "invaders."

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