The Little Rock Nine and the Struggle for School Desegregation
- Daniel Holland
- 23 hours ago
- 7 min read
On a September morning in 1957, a teenage girl named Elizabeth Eckford walked toward the grand entrance of Little Rock Central High School. Dressed neatly in a white blouse and skirt, she carried her books as any student would. But instead of smiles, she was met with an angry mob of white protesters shouting abuse, spitting, and threatening violence. Soldiers from the Arkansas National Guard blocked her path. The image of her calm but resolute figure, eyes hidden behind dark sunglasses, became one of the defining photographs of the American Civil Rights Movement.
This was the beginning of the story of the Little Rock Nine, nine African American students whose bravery in the face of hatred would test the limits of the U.S. Constitution, challenge state and federal power, and help push America further along the long road toward racial equality.
Brown v. Board of Education and the Path to Little Rock
The events in Arkansas cannot be understood without going back to May 17, 1954, when the U.S. Supreme Court handed down its landmark ruling in Brown v. Board of Education (347 U.S. 483). The Court declared racial segregation in public schools unconstitutional, striking down the doctrine of “separate but equal” that had legitimised Jim Crow laws for decades. The decision rested on the Fourteenth Amendment, which guarantees equal protection under the law.
For civil rights organisations like the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), the ruling was a green light to press for immediate change. Across the South, the NAACP tried to enrol Black students into previously all-white schools, testing whether states would truly follow the Court’s directive. In Little Rock, Arkansas, the school board reluctantly agreed to comply, approving a plan for gradual integration.
The Blossom Plan and Its Shortcomings
The first desegregation scheme came from Virgil Blossom, the city’s superintendent of schools. Initially, the plan suggested broad integration across grades, but political pressure and legal wrangling watered it down into a much slower approach.
The final plan, approved in 1955, called for the desegregation of just one school, Little Rock Central High, in September 1957. Junior high schools would follow in 1960, while grade schools were left vague and undefined, possibly delayed until 1963.
Many members of the local NAACP, including Daisy Bates and her husband, L.C. Bates, criticised the plan as too slow and designed to stall meaningful progress. The introduction of a “transfer system” made things worse, allowing white students to avoid attending integrated schools while denying Black students the same choice. This effectively maintained segregation by another name. In February 1956, the NAACP filed a lawsuit against the school board, setting the stage for a showdown.
Choosing the Nine Students
Despite these obstacles, nine exceptional African American students were chosen to attend Central High. Selection was based on strong academics, attendance, and character. They became known as the Little Rock Nine:
Ernest Green (b. 1941) – the first African American to graduate from Central High.
Elizabeth Eckford (b. 1941).
Jefferson Thomas (1942–2010).
Terrence Roberts (b. 1941).
Carlotta Walls LaNier (b. 1942).
Minnijean Brown (b. 1941).
Gloria Ray Karlmark (b. 1942).
Thelma Mothershed (1940–2024).
Melba Pattillo Beals (b. 1941).
Each was an ordinary teenager with extraordinary courage, stepping into history at just 15 or 16 years old.
Governor Faubus and the National Guard Blockade
On September 4, 1957, the nine students tried to attend their first day of class. But Arkansas Governor Orval Faubus called in the Arkansas National Guard, not to protect the children but to block them from entering. Faubus claimed he was trying to prevent “imminent danger of tumult, riot, and breach of peace,” but his real motivation was political.
Facing re-election and pressure from segregationists, Faubus saw an opportunity to gain support by resisting federal authority. As one segregationist, James D. Johnson, later boasted, he had tricked Faubus into believing mobs were coming: “There wasn’t any caravan. But we made Orval believe it.”
The sight of armed soldiers keeping children out of school was splashed across newspapers worldwide. America, engaged in the Cold War and claiming to champion freedom abroad, faced an embarrassing contradiction at home.
Elizabeth Eckford recalled that terrifying morning:
“They moved closer and closer. Somebody started yelling. I looked into the face of an old woman and it seemed a kind face, but when I looked at her again, she spat on me.”
Eisenhower Steps In
President Dwight D. Eisenhower, initially reluctant to intervene directly in civil rights battles, realised the crisis was spiralling. When Little Rock’s mayor, Woodrow Wilson Mann, pleaded for federal help, Eisenhower acted.
On September 24, 1957, Eisenhower issued Executive Order 10730, federalising the Arkansas National Guard and sending the 101st Airborne Division, 1,000 paratroopers, to Little Rock. The next day, escorted by soldiers with fixed bayonets, the Little Rock Nine finally walked into Central High.
Eisenhower’s decision was historic: it marked the first time since Reconstruction that federal troops were used to enforce civil rights.
Life Inside Central High
Getting through the school doors was only the beginning. Once inside, the nine students endured relentless harassment. They were spat on, shoved in hallways, insulted, and physically attacked.
Melba Pattillo Beals
In her memoir Warriors Don’t Cry (1994), Melba describes two particularly violent incidents at Central High:
A white student threw acid into her eyes in a hallway. A soldier from the 101st Airborne quickly flushed her eyes with water, preventing permanent damage.
A group of white girls cornered her in the girls’ washroom and dropped flaming pieces of paper into her stall, attempting to set her on fire. She escaped without injury but was terrified.
Source: Melba Pattillo Beals, Warriors Don’t Cry (Simon & Schuster, 1994)
Minnijean Brown
Minnijean endured months of harassment. In December 1957, while being taunted in the cafeteria, she spilled her bowl of chilli on a group of boys who had been tormenting her. She was suspended for six days.
After further confrontations (including calling a girl who taunted her “white trash”), she was expelled in February 1958. She then transferred to the progressive New Lincoln School in New York City.
Sources: Daisy Bates, The Long Shadow of Little Rock (1986); John A. Kirk, Beyond Little Rock (2007)
As Minnijean reflected:
“We were told we would have to take a lot and were warned not to fight back if anything happened.”
Despite the torment, Ernest Green graduated in 1958, watched proudly by Martin Luther King Jr., who attended the ceremony.
The “Lost Year”
Governor Faubus was not finished. In 1958, he manoeuvred to delay desegregation further. When the courts ruled against him, he took drastic action: he closed all four public high schools in Little Rock for the entire 1958–59 school year.
This became known as the “Lost Year”, leaving both Black and white students without access to education. White citizens largely blamed the Black community for the closures, escalating hostility. Teachers were forced to sign loyalty oaths, and civil rights leaders like Daisy Bates became targets of intimidation.
Schools reopened in 1959, but the tension and abuse continued.
Legacy of the Little Rock Nine
The courage of the Little Rock Nine reverberated far beyond Arkansas. Their stand became a powerful symbol of resistance to segregation and a test case for federal enforcement of civil rights.
Central High School is today a National Historic Site, home to a Civil Rights Museum managed with the National Park Service. The Daisy Bates House, where students often gathered for protection, is also preserved as a National Historic Landmark.
Over the decades, the Nine received numerous honours:
1999 – President Bill Clinton awarded them the Congressional Gold Medal, the highest civilian honour given by Congress.
2005 – Their story was featured on a U.S. postage stamp.
2007 – The U.S. Mint issued a commemorative silver dollar.
2008 – They attended the inauguration of President Barack Obama, the first African American president.
2022 – Several members ceremonially welded their initials onto the keel of the USS Arkansas (SSN-800) submarine, linking their legacy to the U.S. Navy.
Their story has also inspired books and films, from Melba Pattillo’s memoir Warriors Don’t Cry to the television movies Crisis at Central High (1981) and The Ernest Green Story (1993).
Global Impact
The Little Rock Crisis was not just a domestic issue. During the Cold War, U.S. officials worried about how images of segregation affected America’s reputation abroad. Secretary of State John Foster Dulles admitted that the events were “ruining our foreign policy.” The federal government recognised that to win influence in Africa, Asia, and Latin America, America had to show progress on civil rights at home.
Thus, the courage of nine teenagers in Arkansas carried global consequences, pushing the U.S. government toward stronger action against segregation.
Conclusion
The Little Rock Nine were not politicians, lawyers, or activists by profession—they were teenagers. Yet, by simply insisting on their right to attend school, they forced the United States to confront the contradiction between its democratic ideals and its practices of racial segregation.
Today, their story remains a reminder that progress often comes at great personal cost, and that the courage of a few can alter the course of a nation.
As Elizabeth Eckford once said, reflecting on that infamous walk to school:
“It’s not about us. It’s about what we represent: the right of every child to equal education.”
Sources
National Park Service – Little Rock Central High School National Historic Site https://www.nps.gov/chsc/index.htm
Eisenhower Presidential Library – The Little Rock School Integration Crisis https://www.eisenhowerlibrary.gov/research/online-documents/little-rock-school-integration-crisis
Library of Congress – Brown v. Board of Education (Landmark Case Summary) https://www.loc.gov/exhibits/brown/brown-brown.html
U.S. Supreme Court – Brown v. Board of Education, 347 U.S. 483 (1954) https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/347/483/
Bates, Daisy. The Long Shadow of Little Rock: A Memoir. University of Arkansas Press, 1986.
Beals, Melba Pattillo. Warriors Don’t Cry: A Searing Memoir of the Battle to Integrate Little Rock’s Central High. Simon & Schuster, 1994.
Kirk, John A. Beyond Little Rock: The Origins and Legacies of the Central High Crisis. University of Arkansas Press, 2007.
U.S. Mint – Little Rock Central High School Desegregation Silver Dollar https://www.usmint.gov/coins/coin-medal-programs/commemorative-coins/little-rock-central-high-school-desegregation
Clinton Presidential Center – The Little Rock Nine Congressional Gold Medal Ceremony (1999) https://clintonwhitehouse4.archives.gov/WH/New/html/19991109-360.html
Marquette University – Père Marquette Discovery Award: The Little Rock Nine (2010) https://www.marquette.edu/discovery-award/past-recipients.php
Ashmore, Harry S. Civil Rights and Wrongs: A Memoir of Race and Politics, 1944–1996. University of Arkansas Press, 1997.
Dudziak, Mary L. Cold War Civil Rights: Race and the Image of American Democracy. Princeton University Press, 2000.
