Little Rock Nine Changed American History 50 Years Ago

Leonard E. Colvin
Chief Reporter
New Journal and Guide

       From September 20 through March, the city of Little Rock, Ark. will celebrate the 50th anniversary of the first nine Black students to enter Central High School and the history books.
       Nine African American students who had applied for enrollment at the all-White school had been selected by the local school board to enroll. Three years earlier segregation in the nation’s public schools had been outlawed by the U.S. Supreme Court.
     

    But 50 years ago, there was no public celebration to mark the occasion. On the morning of September 23, 1957, nine African-American teenagers held the line against an angry mob protesting integration in front of Little Rock's Central High. The local White community, and  the state’s political leaders were angry that Black students were breaking down an established and cherished way of life in Little Rock. 

    As the students met their new classmates for the first time inside the school, outside violence escalated and the Little Rock police removed the nine from the school for their safety.

    The next day, President Dwight D. Eisenhower ordered the U.S. Army’s 101st Airborne Division into Little Rock to escort the nine students into the school. One of the nine later remembered, “After three full days inside Central, I knew that integration is a much bigger word than I thought.“
     What the Little Rock Nine and their supporters achieved was the first important test for the implementation of the U.S. Supreme Court's historic Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka decision of 1954...

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