Three years, three months, and 18 days after Brown v. Board of Education declared segregation in education illegal, nine Black kids readied to attend Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas. Then the state got involved.
Schools across the South continued to resist desegregation, with encouragement from angry white mobs and local government officials. In the case of the “Little Rock Nine,” this opposition wasn’t just local.
On September 2, Governor Orval Faubus called the Arkansas National Guard to block the students from entering the school. US District Judge Ronald Davies ordered the high school desegregation to proceed the next day, but the students were still blocked from entering the school.
Little Rock’s mayor, desperate to end the confrontation, called the White House. Twenty-five days later, President Dwight D. Eisenhower deployed the 101st Airborne Division. Finally, on September 29, 1957, the Little Rock Nine were allowed to attend school.
The small act of teenagers seeking better access to education caused a massive battle for power among white leaders and the entire community. What does this show us about our fight for liberation?