The Little Rock Nine With Their Mentor and Local Civil Rights Leader Daisy Bates
Elizabeth Eckford Confronted by a White Mob
Little Rock Nine Enter Central High School Guarded by Soldiers of the 101st Airborne
Many public school systems started classes this week. Some of those systems already experienced disruptions caused by numerous cases of COVID-19 among children and staff. Around the country, students, parents, and educators are wondering, “When will we get to have a normal school year?”
The school year of 1957-58 was anything but normal in Little Rock, Arkansas. Central High School was ordered by the federal court to integrate following three years of delayed implementation of the Brown v. Board of Education Supreme Court decision of 1954. Nine Black students were chosen by the Black community to be the first to integrate the school. They were mentored and supported by Mrs. Daisy Bates, a long time local leader for racial justice. As often happened during the Civil Rights Movement, state and local officials actively opposed integration even when ordered by the courts. In this case, it took three attempts before the Black students were able to attend classes. Those attempts are briefly summarized below:
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When the new academic year began the day after Labor Day, Governor Orval Faubus called out local units of the Arkansas National Guard to prevent the Black students from entering Central High School.
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After a federal judge ordered the removal of the National Guard, the Black students entered the school through a side entrance on September 23. However, the local police could not provide sufficient security as a large white mob gathered around the school. Fearing for the students’ lives, they were escorted out of the school and driven away from the hostile mob.
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President Eisenhower called out units of the 101st Airborne Division to go to Little Rock and provide security for the Black students to enter and attend Central High School. Finally on September 25, the students entered Central High School by going up the front steps surrounded by soldiers. For the entire academic year, each of the Little Rock Nine were assigned a soldier to escort them around the school campus. Even this could not prevent daily episodes of verbal and physical harassment by some white students. After displaying such courage, faith, and endurance, many of the Little Rock Nine did not graduate from Central High School. Local and state officials closed the school for the 1958-59 academic year rather than continue on an integrated basis.
The video posted below provides a summary of the witness and legacy of the Little Rock Nine featuring the perspective of two of the original nine students. As we continue to struggle with a third academic year impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic, it is important to remember the witness of those who struggled with the impact of another pandemic, the ongoing pandemic of systemic racism.