sep 4, 1957 - Little Rock, Arkansas

Description:

9 black students enrolled at formerly all-white Central High School in Little Rock, testing a landmark 1954 U.S. Supreme Court ruling that declared segregation in public schools unconstitutional.

On September 4, 1957, the first day of classes at Central High, Governor Orval Faubus of Arkansas called in the state National Guard to bar the black students’ entry into the school. Later in the month, President Dwight D. Eisenhower sent in federal troops to escort the “Little Rock Nine” into the school, and they started their first full day of classes on September 25.