The Little Rock Nine

Improved Essays
In 1954, the Supreme Court case, Brown v. Board, made nationwide school integration mandatory. The first school to attempt integration was Central High School in Arkansas. Many people might not know about The Little Rock Nine, but those that do usually admire their courageous actions, which left a huge impact in American history. Despite all the discrimination they faced, The Little Rock Nine helped enforce the rights of African Americans by being the first people of color to integrate a school in Little Rock, Arkansas, which was a big step in the Civil Rights Movement.
Now, let’s start from the beginning. The Brown v. Board of Education case was a supreme court ruling in which the court declared that separating black and white students in school was unconstitutional. This is an extremely famous case because it was the start of desegregation in schools. Although this was passed in 1954, it was not until 1957 that students from Little Rock High School took their big step towards equality.
…show more content…
Before they began attending the school, they participated in intensive counseling sessions to prepare themselves for what they would experience. On September 2nd, 1957, Governor Orval Flaubus declared that he would call in the Arkansas National Guard to deny the African Americans access into the school. He claimed that violence and bloodshed might break out if the students entered the school. On September 3rd, a federal judge by the name of Richard Davies issued a ruling which stated that desegregation would take place the next day, as

Related Documents

  • Decent Essays

    Little Rock Nine At the beginning more than 8 students were chosen for integration. Only 9 of them actually integrated Central High. Arkansas Governor, Orval Faubus, prevented the 9 African-Americans from entering the school. Segregationist counsels threatened to hold protests at the school and physically block the “Little Rock Nine” from integrating.…

    • 234 Words
    • 1 Pages
    Decent Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Under escort of the Screaming Eagles, sent by President Eisenhower, nine black students enter Central High and complete their first day. Just three weeks ago, Arkansas Governor Orval Faubus sent National Guard troops to prevent the students from entering. He has now been over ruled by President Eisenhower. Eisenhower federalized the Arkansas National Guard and sent in 1,000 army paratroopers to enforce the integration in Little Rock. Many of the men were stationed in the school hallways to help keep the physical violence to a minimum.…

    • 486 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Before the little rock nine happened schools were way different. There were schools for white students, and there were schools for black people. It didn’t just happen at school, even around the towns the blacks and whites had separate things. The schools were also very unfair, the whites would get the nicest things within the school. The blacks would get old books that the whites…

    • 724 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    May 17 is the 60th anniversary of Brown vs Board of Education, the US Supreme court's 1954 decision that prohibited Southern states from segregating schools by race. The Brown decision annihilated the "separate but equal" rule, previously sanctioned by the supreme Court in 1896, that permitted sates and school districts to designated some schools "Whites-only" and others "Negroes-only". More important, by focusing the nation's attention on subjugation of blacks, it helped fuel a wave of freedom rides, sit-ins, voter registration efforts, and other actions leading ultimately to civil rights legislation in the late 1950's and 1960's. But brown was unsuccessful in its purported mission to undo the school segregation that persist as a central feature…

    • 219 Words
    • 1 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    In 1954 when the United States Supreme Court ruled towards the separation of educational facilities being unequal in the Brown v. Board of Education case, a bit after nine young African Americans enrolled in a Little Rock Central High School. This phenomenon caused chaos all over little rocks community due to the fact that no individual wanted to desegregate. Therefore, with the cause of desegregation in public school the Arkansas National Guard and white mobs gather in front of the school and prevent the black students from entering. The Little Rock nine students fearing escalating mob violence still managed to get from home to school with the help of the Airborne Division that was sent to protect the students. As the school year came to an end Ernest Green became the first African American to graduate from Little Rock Central High.…

    • 524 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The Little Rock School Board decided on a gradual approach to integration, as not to disturb student lifestyle. This plan was to slowly integrate a few black students, chosen by their academic excellence, by 1957. The nine students chosen to integrate Central High School known as the Little Rock Nine faced many challenges in their brave and heroic endeavours. The Little Rock Nine integrated against many citizens’ wishes and beliefs, which caused many difficulties. Little Rock’s governor, Orval Faubus, did not help to ease these difficulties.…

    • 746 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas (1954), was a landmark case, impacting the public school system with making segregation within the school system a violation against the law. It showed how separate but equal no longer make sense in America. Leading up to the groundbreaking court case, the country was divided by segregation. In the south, there were Jim Crow Laws and the white population trying to limit the power the African-American had within the community. While in the north there was a large migrant of American Americans looking for a better life in the larger cities.…

    • 1561 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Little Rock Nine Dbq

    • 494 Words
    • 2 Pages

    The nine teenagers or “Little Rock Nine” as they are popularly known were enrolled in Little Rock Central High School only after initially being prevented from doing so by the National Guard sent out by the Governor of Arkansas. It wasn’t until President Eisenhower sent the 101st Airborne Division to escort them in that they were able to enter. President Eisenhower’s actions were not, as they may appear, in solidarity with the Civil Rights Movement. President Eisenhower took action because Governor Orval Faubus had deliberately attempted to defy a federal law. Therefore.…

    • 494 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The day before the 1957 school year started the people of Little Rock were getting ready to fight against the African Americans that were about to walk into the school (Fradin 1). Orval Faubus sent the Arkansas National Guard to stop the students from entering (Ahmed 1) “ By 9 P.M. on September 2, the day before school was to start, 300 Arkansas National Guardsman began to surround Central High School” (Fitzgerald 30). The majority of people in the South did not like the African Americans and them getting a chance to go to a white school; they were happy to see the National Guard was there to stop…

    • 1217 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Dbq Reconstruction Era

    • 816 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Once the 1950's and 1960's came around, the Civil Rights Movement gained Executive support. The Little Rock Nine were A group of African American teenagers, who voluntarily enrolled in an all white school in Little Rock Arkansas. The Brown vs Board of Education Supreme Court Case which occurred three years earlier, made it illegal for Schools to remain segregated, and by extension, ruled "Separate but Equal," unconstitutional. Thus the Central High-School of Little Rock was Constitutionally required to let the nine students attend school. The Governor of Arkansas however, sent the national Guard to, prevent the Little Rock Nine from entering.…

    • 816 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    “The Struggle for Black Equality” by Harvard Sitkoff, summarizes the key elements in the fight for the civil rights of African Americans from 1954-1980. The book was set up in chronological order, each chapter embodying the new step to gain equality. The first chapter is titled “Up from slavery,” it consists of the small actions that took place slowly to assure the equal rights. By the end of the first chapter, the concept of equal rights was introduced more prominently, opening people's eyes to the problem. Nevertheless, there was still doubt in the system and people who did not agree.…

    • 1003 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Great Essays

    Brown v. Board of Education is considered a landmark Supreme Court case due to the fact that it showed the need for racial equality in the United States, and completely changed the legal notion of “separate but equal”. This case was about racial based segregation with children in public schools, because the “separate but equal” rule was violating the…

    • 985 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Brown v. Board of Education is a historical landmark case that came from Topeka, Kansas where a young girl by the name of Linda Brown was denied admission to her local elementary school for the color of her skin. This supreme court case made the decisive decision between whether racial segregations in public schools is unconstitutional. More decisively the decision that changed the ruling of Plessy v. Ferguson that argued that although people are separate but equal, when it comes to education there is no way to make it fully equal then to integrate. This case was used by the NAACP to fight for Linda Brown. Allowing her and many other people like her to go to the all-white school.…

    • 766 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Board of Education case happened in 1955, when schools in Topeka, Kansas were getting segregated by race. A child and her sisters always had to walk across a dangerous railroad to get to their all black school even though there was an all white school much closer to their house without dangers of a railroad. The family (Brown's) decided to take the case to court because they believed it violated the Fourteenth Amendment. They went to both federal and Supreme Court, but found what they were looking for in Supreme. This case is very similar to Plessy v. Ferguson case and because of this the case got challenged.…

    • 1298 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    African Americans had fought for their equalities for many years. One group known for its efforts in the fight was the National Association of Advancement for Colored People (NAACP). The NAACP fought to undermine the premise of the separate-but-equal doctrine of segregation. The most well know case to put an end to this way of life came from the 1950’s Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka Kansas case where ultimately, “Chief Justice Earl Warren’s Court ruled unanimously that separate educational facilities… resulted in inherently unequal education” (Schaller, 930). This lead to nine black students trying to attend classes at the all white Central High School of Little Rock, Arkansas with federal court order.…

    • 984 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays