The Central High School Integration refers to the events of September 1957, in which nine African American students, who became known as the ‘Little Rock Nine’, attempted to enroll at Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas. The students were initially blocked from entering the school by the Arkansas National Guard, acting under orders from Governor Orval Faubus. After several weeks of confrontation, President Dwight D. Eisenhower sent federal troops to escort the students into the school and protect them throughout the school year. The Central High School Integration is considered to be one of the most important events in the history of the Civil Rights Movement and was the first major test of the Supreme Court’s ruling in Brown v. Board of Education.
WHAT WAS THE CIVIL RIGHTS MOVEMENT?
The Civil Rights Movement was a widespread social and political campaign for equal rights that took place primarily during the 1950s and 1960s in the United States. The movement was driven by African Americans and their allies who sought to end the system of racial segregation and discrimination that had existed in the United States for centuries. Racial segregation meant that African Americans were legally separated from white Americans in schools, restaurants, transportation, hospitals, and other public spaces, and were routinely denied the same rights and opportunities available to white citizens.
The Civil Rights Movement used a variety of methods to challenge this system, including: peaceful protests, legal challenges through the courts, boycotts, and political pressure on the United States government. Some of the most important events of the Civil Rights Movement included the Supreme Court ruling in Brown v. Board of Education in 1954, the Montgomery Bus Boycott of 1955, the March on Washington in 1963, and the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965. The Central High School Integration was one of the earliest and most visible confrontations of the Civil Rights Movement, and demonstrated the fierce resistance to racial equality that existed in many parts of the United States.
CENTRAL HIGH SCHOOL INTEGRATION – BACKGROUND
The Central High School Integration was a direct result of the Supreme Court’s ruling in Brown v. Board of Education in May of 1954. In that ruling, the Court declared unanimously that racial segregation in public schools was unconstitutional and that separate educational facilities were inherently unequal. The decision overturned the earlier legal doctrine of ‘separate but equal’ that had been established by the Supreme Court in Plessy v. Ferguson in 1896. The Brown ruling required all public schools in the United States to desegregate, though it did not set a specific deadline for when this must be completed.
Following the Brown ruling, the Little Rock School Board agreed to comply with the Court’s decision and developed a plan for gradual integration. The superintendent of schools, Virgil Blossom, submitted a plan to the school board in May of 1955, which the board approved. The plan called for integration to begin at the high school level in September of 1957, with junior high schools and elementary schools to follow in later years. This means that Little Rock was one of the first school districts in the South to develop a formal desegregation plan, though the pace of that plan was considered too slow by many civil rights activists.
Opposition to the desegregation plan grew quickly in Little Rock. Two pro-segregation organizations formed in response to the plan, including the Capital Citizens’ Council and the Mothers’ League of Central High School. Both groups actively campaigned to prevent integration and filed legal challenges in an attempt to block the plan. Despite these challenges, a federal judge ordered that desegregation proceed as planned. By the spring of 1957, eighty African American students who lived in the Central High School district expressed an interest in attending the school. The Little Rock School Board interviewed the candidates and eventually selected nine students to be the first African Americans to enroll at Central High School.
CENTRAL HIGH SCHOOL INTEGRATION – THE LITTLE ROCK NINE
The nine students selected to integrate Central High School were chosen by the NAACP and the Little Rock School Board based on their academic record, attendance, and personal character. The students were recruited and supported by Daisy Bates, the president of the Arkansas branch of the NAACP and co-publisher of an influential African American newspaper. Bates played a central role in organizing and supporting the students throughout the crisis. The nine students were: Minnijean Brown, Elizabeth Eckford, Ernest Green, Thelma Mothershed, Melba Pattillo, Gloria Ray, Terrence Roberts, Jefferson Thomas, and Carlotta Walls. All nine were teenagers at the time of the integration crisis.
The students were selected not only for their academic qualifications but also for their strength of character and their ability to withstand the pressure and hostility they were expected to face. Bates and the NAACP understood that the students would likely encounter significant resistance and prepared them as best they could for what lay ahead. For instance, the African American community in Little Rock was aware that Central High School had far more academic resources than the segregated schools that African American students had been required to attend, including a wider range of courses, better facilities, and more extracurricular opportunities. Many of the students and their families saw enrollment at Central as an opportunity to access the quality of education that had previously been denied to them.
CENTRAL HIGH SCHOOL INTEGRATION – THE CRISIS
On the evening of September 2nd, 1957, the night before the first day of school at Central High School, Governor Orval Faubus made a televised address to the people of Arkansas. In his address, Faubus announced that he was ordering the Arkansas National Guard to surround Central High School, claiming that the action was necessary to prevent violence. His order effectively blocked the nine African American students from entering the school.
On September 4th, 1957, the first day of classes at Central High School, the Little Rock Nine arrived to enroll. Eight of the students traveled together, accompanied by an escort of ministers arranged by Daisy Bates. The ninth student, fifteen-year-old Elizabeth Eckford, arrived separately after being unable to be contacted by Bates the night before. Eckford arrived alone and was surrounded by a large and hostile white mob. Soldiers from the Arkansas National Guard refused to allow her or the other students to enter the school. Eckford attempted to find safety and was eventually led away from the crowd by a sympathetic white woman. The sight of soldiers blocking African American teenagers from entering a public school made national headlines and drew widespread attention to the situation in Little Rock.
The standoff continued for several weeks. On September 20th, a federal judge ruled that Governor Faubus had used the National Guard to prevent integration rather than to preserve order as he had claimed, and ordered the Guard removed from the school. On September 23rd, the Little Rock Nine managed to enter the school through a side entrance, but were removed by police after a large and violent mob gathered outside. That evening, President Eisenhower issued a proclamation calling on those opposing the court order to stop their resistance.
On September 24th, 1957, the mayor of Little Rock sent a telegram to President Eisenhower requesting federal assistance to restore order and complete the integration of the school. Eisenhower responded by ordering approximately 1,200 soldiers from the 101st Airborne Division of the United States Army to Little Rock. He also federalized the Arkansas National Guard, which removed it from Faubus’ control. On September 25th, 1957, under escort from soldiers of the 101st Airborne Division, the Little Rock Nine entered Central High School and attended their first full day of classes.
CENTRAL HIGH SCHOOL INTEGRATION – THE SCHOOL YEAR
The presence of federal troops allowed the Little Rock Nine to attend school, but their experience throughout the year was difficult. Each of the nine students was assigned a personal guard who escorted them between classes. However, the guards were not permitted to accompany the students inside classrooms, bathrooms, or locker rooms, which left the students vulnerable to harassment from other students during those times.
Throughout the school year, the Little Rock Nine endured verbal abuse, physical attacks, and deliberate attempts to intimidate them. For instance, Melba Pattillo was kicked, beaten, and had acid thrown in her face on separate occasions. Gloria Ray was pushed down a flight of stairs. White students burned an effigy of an African American student in a vacant lot near the school. The harassment extended beyond the students themselves. Gloria Ray’s mother was fired from her job with the state government when she refused to withdraw her daughter from Central High School.
In December of 1957, Minnijean Brown was suspended after dropping a bowl of chili on white students who had blocked her path in the cafeteria and refused to let her pass. Brown was eventually expelled from Central High School in February of 1958 after further confrontations with students who had been harassing her. She transferred to a school in New York for the remainder of the year. The remaining eight students completed the school year at Central High School. On May 27th, 1958, Ernest Green became the first African American student to graduate from Central High School. Martin Luther King Jr. attended the graduation ceremony.
CENTRAL HIGH SCHOOL INTEGRATION – AFTERMATH
Following the 1957 to 1958 school year, Governor Faubus took further action to prevent the continued integration of Little Rock’s public schools. In September of 1958, Faubus ordered the closure of all four of Little Rock’s public high schools rather than allow desegregation to continue. The schools remained closed for the entire 1958 to 1959 school year. White students were directed to private segregated schools or attended school in other districts, while many African American students were left without access to education. This period became known as the ‘Lost Year’ in Little Rock.
In December of 1959, the Supreme Court ruled that the Little Rock School Board must reopen the schools and resume the desegregation process. The schools reopened in the fall of 1959 and integration continued, though slowly and with continued resistance. Full desegregation of Little Rock’s public schools was a lengthy process that continued well into the 1970s.
The nine students who had integrated Central High School went on to various careers and continued to be recognized for their courage. In 1958, the Little Rock Nine were awarded the Spingarn Medal, the highest honor given by the NAACP. In 1999, President Bill Clinton awarded each of the surviving members of the Little Rock Nine the Congressional Gold Medal, one of the highest civilian honors in the United States. Central High School was designated as a National Historic Landmark in 1982, and a museum dedicated to the Little Rock Nine was opened nearby in 2007.
CENTRAL HIGH SCHOOL INTEGRATION – SIGNIFICANCE
The Central High School Integration was significant for several reasons. First, the Central High School Integration was significant because it was the first major confrontation over the enforcement of the Supreme Court’s ruling in Brown v. Board of Education. The Brown ruling had declared racial segregation in public schools unconstitutional in 1954, but many southern states had refused to comply. The events at Central High School in 1957 demonstrated that the federal government was willing to use military force to uphold the constitutional rights of African American citizens, even in the face of direct resistance from a state governor. This established an important precedent that federal authority over civil rights could not be overridden by state governments.
The Central High School Integration was also significant because it drew national and international attention to the reality of racial segregation in the United States. The images of African American teenagers being blocked from entering a public school by armed soldiers, and being surrounded by hostile mobs, were broadcast and published widely around the world. For many Americans who had paid little attention to conditions in the South, the events at Central High School made the injustice of racial segregation impossible to ignore. As such, the crisis in Little Rock helped build public support for the broader Civil Rights Movement and increased pressure on the federal government to take stronger action on civil rights.
Finally, the Central High School Integration was significant because the courage of the Little Rock Nine became an enduring symbol of the Civil Rights Movement. Nine teenagers faced extraordinary hostility and danger in order to exercise a right that had been guaranteed to them by the Supreme Court. Their determination to continue attending school despite constant harassment and violence demonstrated the personal cost that many African Americans paid in the struggle for equality. The Little Rock Nine helped inspire further challenges to segregation across the South and are remembered as important figures in the history of the Civil Rights Movement and American history more broadly.
