Little Rock Nine

Nikhil Nargundkar

1954: Brown vs. Board of Education

The nine are chosen

September 4th 1957

September 25th 1957

Little Rock School Board complies

September 3rd 1957

September 23rd 1957

May 27th 1958

Brown vs. Board of Education In 1954, the United States Supreme Court ruled that segregation of schools is unconstitutional. This decision contradicted the 1896 Plessy vs. Ferguson case which allowed segregation.

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Little Rock School Board Complies Soon after the decision the school board began the process of complying with the new regulations. The first school that was required to integrate was Little Rocks Central High School.

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The Chosen Ones The nine students: Thelma Mothershed, Elizabeth Eckford, Gloria Ray, Jefferson Thomas, Melba Pattillo, Ernest Green, Carlotta Walls, Minnijean Brown, and Terrence Roberts, would forever change the Little Rock School System.

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September 3rd 1957 On this day the nine black students were to be integrated into Little Rock Central High. However, the governor, Orval Faubus, had other ideas. He ordered the National Guard to stand watch outside of the school and to not permit the nine to enter. Later that day the NAACP got Judge Ronald Davies of the federal district court to order the integration.

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September 4th 1957 After the previous days events, the students were to be escorted in police cars to the school. Again they were denied entry. Eight of the students were returned safely home. However, Elizabeth Eckford did not get the message and was forced by an angry mob, threatening to kill her, to walk to a bus stop.

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September 23rd In the two weeks after September 4 th the federal court ordered the governor to stop interfering and removed the National Guard outside of the school. On September 23rd the nine students finally entered the school. Meanwhile the crowd outside chanted two, four, six, eight, we aint gonna integrate! Later that morning the students were removed for fear of the increasing angry mob outside.

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September 25th Little Rock Mayor Woodrow Mann, with the help of President Eisenhower, ordered that federal troops be sent to help. In a military convoy including jeeps, armed soldiers, and helicopters with paratroopers, the students once again entered the school. This protection remained the rest of the year with the addition of two guards to each student inside the school.

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May 27th 1958 On this day Ernest Green became the first black student to graduate from the High School. Even Dr. Martin Luther King attended the ceremony. The other eight did not get this chance though. They along with everyone else, were forced to attend other schools the next year when voters chose to close all four of the citys high schools to prevent any more desegregation effort.

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