The Little Rock Nine, a group of Black teenagers, attended their first full day of high school classes on this day in 1957. Three years earlier, the Supreme Court had ruled that racial segregation of schools was unconstitutional. But when the time came for Black students to begin attending classes at Little Rock Central High School, Gov. Orval Faubus, a segregationist, refused to allow the nine students inside. He went so far as to use the state’s National Guard to block off the building.
The students attempted to enter the school several times, at one point managing to get in through a side door before being evacuated for their safety. Little Rock’s mayor openly criticized the governor’s actions. On Sept. 24, he asked President Dwight Eisenhower to intervene, who responded by federalizing the National Guard and sending in members of the 101st Airborne Division, an elite Army assault division, to protect the students on their way inside.
Despite their historic actions, the students would face more threats and violence in their time at the school. Melba Pattillo had acid thrown in her eyes, and Elizabeth Eckford was pushed down a flight of stairs. Minnijean Brown was suspended and eventually expelled for refusing to take abuse by white students, including dumping chili over a bully’s head and insulting girls who had thrown a purse full of locks at her. Three of the nine would graduate from Little Rock Central High School, and the rest from other schools.
