They didn’t set out to be heroes – they just wanted to go to a decent school. But the quiet courage of nine African-American students in the face of a snarling racist mob at Little Rock Central High School 50 years ago changed America forever.
When the U.S. Supreme Court handed down its 1954 desegregation decision, few would have predicted that Little Rock would be the venue where that ruling would ultimately be enforced – quite literally at the point of federal bayonets.
The Arkansas capital was seen as an oasis of moderate racial policies in the old Confederacy. Libraries and buses were integrated, as was the University of Arkansas campus. Little Rock’s school board voluntarily voted to integrate Central High with nine black students, chosen for good grades and deportment.
But then-Gov. Orval Faubus was a cynical opportunist who sided with the racist “citizens councils” when they mobilized to physically block the black students from entering the school. Faubus called out the Arkansas National Guard on Sept. 4, 1957, to turn away the black students.
A federal court order from Judge Ronald Davies persuaded Faubus to withdraw the Guard, and the students then entered the school under protection of city police. But a racist mob forced the outnumbered police to remove the students. Little Rock Mayor Woodrow Mann then asked President Dwight Eisenhower to send federal troops to enforce the law.
Eisenhower responded on Sept. 24 by deploying the famous 101st Airborne Division to Little Rock. Eisenhower also federalized the Arkansas National Guard, removing it from Faubus’ control. The federal troops were withdrawn at Thanksgiving and replaced by a unit of the Arkansas Guard, which kept the peace until the end of the school year.
Eisenhower’s bold intervention marked the first time since the end of the post-Civil War Construction era that federal troops had been sent to the South to enforce the law.
The nine students still had to endure taunts and jibes from some of their classmates. But by the time of their own graduation they had won the respect of many of their former tormentors – and spurred the watching nation to honor the words of the Declaration of Independence that “all men are created equal.”
Their names were Terrence Roberts, Melba Patillo Beals, Elizabeth Eckford, Ernest Green, Gloria Ray Karlmark, Carlotta Walls Lanier, Jefferson Thomas, Minnijean Brown Trickey and Thelma Mothershed Wair. Their dignity and courage will forever enshrine them in the pantheon of American heroes.
