EOTO: Little Rock Nine

This event shown a Pro-Civil Rights message.

Little Rock Nine is the event of when nine African American students enrolled to Little Rock Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas. This school was an all white school but this decided to challenge the ruling of Brown v Board of Education.

In 1954, the US Supreme Court ruled in the case of Brown v Board of Education of Topeka. This case was based on the fact that a black child, Linda Brown, had to travel further to a black school instead of walking to the white school by her house. Therefore, Brown and her father challenged that the phrase, created by Supreme Court case, Plessy v. Fergusson, "separate but equal" is not actually equal. This phrase insinuates that if blacks and whites are offered separate facilities it is ok if they are equal. Brown v Board's ruling was that segregation in schools was unconstitutional and thus desegregation the school system.

The following years of Brown v Board did not really make progress of desegregating black and white school until the summer of 1957. During this summer, nine African American teenagers enrolled to a white school in Little Rock, Arkansas. On the first day of school, these teenagers did not attend classes due to being warned by Little Rock Board of Education. But when they arrived on the second day of school, a white mob was standing in front of the school threating, shouting, and throwing items at the African American teenagers and the governor of Arkansas, Orval Eugene Faubus, sent 270 soldiers of the state National Guard to block the entrance to the school.

Soon this opposition to desegregating schools attracted a national attention including newspapers, news stations, and even the federal government, i.e. the President. Because of the attention of the press, these African American teenagers were known as the Little Rock Nine. These nine students tried their best to avoid public tension including staying at home or entering side schools to avoid the white mob but soon they were discovered and still being threated. President Eisenhower deployed United States soldiers to protect the African American students while they were at school. And eventually, after being reelected again, Faubus closed all of the schools in Little Rock to keep the schools from being segregated.

The following offers information about Brown v Board of Education and Little Rock Nine:

https://www.uscourts.gov/educational-resources/educational-activities/history-brown-v-board-education-re-enactment

https://www.britannica.com/topic/Little-Rock-Nine