Arkansas Nine Desegregating America\'s Schools

Arkansas Nine

Desegregating America's Schools

The Little Rock Nine

Little Rock Nine Changed the Course of America

In September, 1957, nine Black American high school students walked into Central High School, in Little Rock, Arkansas. What was unusual about that event was the time in history, 1957, when segregation throughout the country, most prominently throughout the southern states, was a way of life. The 1957 event in Little Rock was one marked by the presence of 1,200 armed military personnel from the 101st Airborne Division, sent to protect the young nine students, and to ensure that Little Rock's Central High and the State of Arkansas complied with the landmark Supreme Court case and decision in Brown v Board of Education, marking the end of segregated schools in America. Just three weeks earlier, a defiant Arkansas Governor Orval Faubus had defied the Supreme Court, blocking admission of the nine students to Central High School. In September, Faubus had used Arkansas' National Guard to prevent the nine students from entering the school, which created a standoff between Arkansas and, now, the Constitution of the United States that, as a result of Brown v Board of Education, which made segregation illegal. In defying the Constitution, Faubus was defying the government of the United States, and that day in September, 1957, Faubus stood down as the nine young students entered Central High School, attending school with white students under a federal order for desegregation in America. It was one yet another giant step forward in the struggle for Civil Rights in America.

Desegregating America's Schools

The "Little Rock Nine," became important figures in American history, because of their courage in facing the enormous pressures of racism and white resistance to change throughout the south. Today, it is unthinkable, even difficult to imagine the governor of any state in America calling on the state's National Guard to prevent nine students from going to school. The first day in school for the nine students was difficult, and the students were unable to complete their first day. President Eisenhower stepped in, ordering the 101st to go to the school the next day and to ensure the protection of the nine students. Still, the pressure continued to be enormous, and eight of the original nine students completed the year at Central High School. The following fall, high schools in Little Rock closed to prevent further segregation of the schools, in yet another challenge to the Supreme Court case of Brown v the Board of Education.

Eisenhower and his attorney general, Herbert Brownell, meticulously reviewed the federal government's brief that was submitted to the U.S. Supreme Court in its implementation of the 1954 desegregation decision, Brown v. Board of Education, et al. (see Kluger, 1976). The administration supported the plaintiffs (Stern, 1989; Elman, 1987; Brownell, 1967). Eisenhower sent a telegram to the 1954 Annual Meeting of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, in which he stated that he regarded the Brown decision as a "milestone of social advance." But he warned, "We must have patience without compromise of principle. We must have understanding without disregard for differences which actually exist. We must have continued social progress, calmly but persistently made..." (Eisenhower, 1954a). Eisenhower continually maintained the latter position, albeit with a more empathetic understanding of the southern white need for gradualism than the southern black need for speedy movement towards equality."

President Eisenhower's stand was unshakable, even in the face of the Southern Manifesto, a document prepared by the 101 members of the House and the Senate, representing the political leadership of the southern states. One by one, the challenges to the Supreme Court's decision in Brown v the Board of Education failed, and desegregation of schools in America became one of the most contested processes in American history.

The Little Rock Nine

In 1957, the notion that they were changing American history was the last thing on the minds of the nine students entering Central High School.

While the group has been heralded as heroes, Ernest Green says, during an exclusive interview with EBONY magazine, that at the time none of the nine knew the historical significance of what they were doing. "We all believed that we were going to school, and up until that time, there was really no reason why we shouldn't come to that conclusion," says Green, who is now the managing director of public finance for Lehman Brothers' Washington, D.C., office. "The important thing that we realize the older that we get is how unique it was that a group of teenagers got to participate in this seminal event. For each of us, we had different visions about what was going to happen there, but we all saw Central as a better place to improve our own personal education."

The Arkansas nine represents the introduction to one another of young white and black students, who would eventually overcome the racial differences between them to the point where it would one day go unnoticed as to the color of another student's skin. Even in 1957, the reaction to nine students entering a white high school was one of less concern to the students, and of greater concern to parents, businesses, and political leaders whose constituency relied upon a political position siding with racism.