Little Rock Central High School National Historic Site

Here is a little summation of what happened at the Little Rock Central High School, which is now known and classified as a National Historic Site. This was a unique and extremely critical time in the history of Little Rock Arkansas and in the south in general.

Nine ordinary African American teenagers walked out of their homes and stepped up to the front lines in September of l957, when they attempted to walk into Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas. White and Black students had been separated since 1868 with the passage of Act 52. Most African American students had to decide what was the lesser of two evils: exclusion or segregation.

This happened following the1954 Brown vs Board of Education decision which the court ruled that U S state laws establishing racial segregation in public schools are unconstitutional. This landmark ruling did little on the community level to achieve the goal of desegregation.

The controversy in Little Rock was the first fundamental test of the United States resolve to enforce African American civil rights in the face of massive southern defiance following Brown vs Board of Education. Little Rock became the symbol of state resistance to school desegregation. Arkansas’ governor Orval E. Faubus questioned the sanctity of the federal court system and the authority of the US Supreme Court desegregation ruling while the nine African American school students sought to enter the all white Little Rock Central High School.

President Dwight D. Eisenhower was compelled by white mob violence to use federal troops to ensure the rights of African American children to attend the previously all white school. He became the first president since the post-Civil War Reconstruction period to use federal troops in support of African American Civil Rights.

Today this historical site is a National Historic Site, a place to explore events of over half a century ago that has led to equality and opportunities for all. Click here to take you back to our home page.