FAMOUS AUTUMNS Three Months That Changed History
Remembering Little Rock, 1957 By Kristen Jones In September 1957, a group of teens known as the “Little Rock Nine”—Elizabeth Eckford, Ernest Green, Thelma Mothershed, Melba Pattillo Beals, Gloria Ray Karlmark, Minnijean Brown Trickey, Carlotta Walls LaNier, Terrence Roberts and Jefferson Thomas—challenged racial segregation in the public school system in Little Rock, Arkansas. They went on to become the face of the struggle among black students in the South to attend school with white students. The mere attendance of the Nine at the school sparked intense debate worldwide about racial equality, desegregation, and the lack of basic human and civil rights for black Americans. The summer before the school year kicked off, the black teens enrolled at Little Rock Central High School, which had previously been an all-white school. The enrollment caused much controversy although it was backed up by the 1954 U.S. Supreme Court decision in the Brown v. Board of Education case. Many in the South were angered by the thought that white students would be in the same classrooms with black students. They refused to see this happen. Orval Faubus, the governor of Arkansas, was one of these whites. The night before the black students were to begin classes, he ordered the National Guard to block the entrance as they tried to enter the school the next day on September 3.
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Although an order from a federal judge allowed the teens to begin school immediately, on September 4 they were met by an angry mob that included the National Guard sent to block their entrance to the school. The white protesters were yelling and shouting, and some even spat on the black students. The students weren’t able to enter the school that day or for another few weeks. National attention from the situation gained the sympathy of President Dwight Eisenhower. He ordered the National Guard troops to stand down, and on September 23, escorted by the police, the Nine entered the school through a mob of white protesters. Because of the rioting mob, the Nine attended only about three hours of learning before being snuck out of the school and taken home. On September 24, President Eisenhower sent more than a thousand soldiers from the U.S.
BAVUAL:
TOP Arkansas National Guard blocks entrance of black students to Little Rock’s Central High School, September 1957. Photo credit: Francis Miller/Life Pictures/Shutterstock
BOTTOM Elizabeth Eckford (glasses) faces a white racist mob, September 4, 1957. Photo credit: Bellmann/Getty Images
The African Heritage Magazine
| Fall 2021
