Integration of Central High School - HISTORY

Led by civil rights pioneer Daisy Bates, these nine brave Arkansas teenagers broke through racial barriers to become the first black students to attend Little Rock High School.

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On September 2, 1957, Governor Orval Faubus called out the Arkansas National Guard to prevent a group of African-American students, who later became known as the Little Rock Nine, from entering the all-white Central High School. In a broadcast that evening, Faubus defends his decision to call in the state's National Guard.

Under escort from the U.S. Army's 101st Airborne Division, nine black students enter all-white Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas. Three weeks earlier, Arkansas Governor Orval Faubus had surrounded the school with National Guard troops to prevent its federal court-ordered racial integration. After a tense standoff, President Dwight D. Eisenhower federalized the Arkansas National Guard and sent 1,000 army paratroopers to Little Rock to enforce the court order.

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