How do the Little Rock Nine finally get into Central High School?

The Little Rock Nine were the nine brave African-American students who desegregated Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas in September of 1957 after the landmark Brown v. Board of Education Supreme Court case of 1954. On the first day of school, they were prevented from entering the formerly segregated high school by Arkansas National Guard troops commanded to keep them out by Governor Orval Faubus. After the African-American students were not let in, at...

The Little Rock Nine were the nine brave African-American students who desegregated Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas in September of 1957 after the landmark Brown v. Board of Education Supreme Court case of 1954. On the first day of school, they were prevented from entering the formerly segregated high school by Arkansas National Guard troops commanded to keep them out by Governor Orval Faubus. After the African-American students were not let in, at the end of September of 1957, President Eisenhower federalized the Arkansas National Guard and sent the troops of the 101st Airborne Division of the U.S. Army to Little Rock.

The Little Rock Nine were able to enter Central High School under the 101st Airborne Division; later, after this division was withdrawn, the students were protected by the Arkansas National Guard. As Melba Pattillo Beals recounts in Warriors Don't Cry, the students were still subject to verbal and physical abuse by other students for the entire school year.