History of Little Rock Central High School
Personalities of the 1957 Crisis
African-American Education in Arkansas
Photo credits: Female students at Central High School giggle as army soldiers look on (Photo courtesy of the Arkansas History Commission, G1775 series); Minnijean Brown and other Central High School students in front of the school during a bomb threat, 1957 (Photo courtesy of the Arkansas History Commission, G1775 series); The first African-American student to graduate from Central High School, Ernest Green in May 1958 (Photo courtesy of the Arkansas History Commission, G1775 series).
1957-1958 School Year
Following the entrance of the Little Rock Nine to Little Rock Central High Scho
ol in September of 1957, Governor Orval Faubus took a siege mentality to the forced integration, commenting that "We are now in an occupied territory. Evidence of the naked force of the federal government is here apparent, in these, unsheathed bayonets in the backs of schoolgirls" after an image appeared in the local newspaper of bayonets being held at the back of Central High School female students (in actuality, the girls were laughing because they had tripped over the curb and were not threatened by the army soldiers).
In the city, reactions to the integration were mixed. Local business leaders who had called for peaceful compliance with court orders for school integration were met with resistance when the Mother's League of Central High School sought to have the federal troops removed from the high school on the grounds that it violated federal and state constitutions (the action was dismissed in federal court), and Governor Faubus issued statements expressing his desire that the nine African-American students be removed from the high school.
Religious congregations of all faiths gathered to pray for a peaceful end to the integration conflict and the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) fought the validity of the Sovereignty Commission and the forced registration of certain membership lists and organizations. One of those fined for not registering as a member of the NAACP was Daisy Bates, mentor to the Little Rock Nine, who was fined $100 for not complying with the State Sovereignty Commission regulations.
After less than a month at the school, most members of the 101st Airborne left Arkansas and turned their duties over to the Arkansas National Guard. As a result, discipline problems resurfaced at the school. School records indicate that incidents of harassment of the nine African-American students escalated. Verbal arguments and physical violence was common and the high school received five bomb threats in a seven-day period in January 1958.
In December 1957, Minnijean Brown, one of the nine students, had chili dumped on her shoulders by a boy in the lunchroom. A month later, Brown called one of her tormenters "white trash" and was attacked by several bystanders. She said of the argument, "I just can't take everything they throw at me without fighting back." Brown was expelled - along with several other white students - who had cards in their possession that read, "One down...eight to go." These cards were distributed to the student body. After these incidents, Brown left the high school and moved to New York to continue her education. The violence was not limited to the nine African-American students - a white boy who talked with Ernest Green was verbally threatened and his car vandalized. Others were threatened and ostracized for being friendly to any of the nine students.
The crisis at the school spilled over into the city of Little Rock. Segregationists threatened to boycott businesses that advertised in the Arkansas Gazette (which many viewed as being pro-integration). A new African-American organization, the Greater Little Rock Improvement League, formed to end the crisis without pursuing litigation (counter to the actions of the NAACP). Meanwhile, the Capital Citizens Council and other segregationists continued to take legal action against integration of the city's schools. Local businessmen proposed altern
ate plans for desegregation that were supported by both the Arkansas Gazette and the Arkansas Democrat. However, these plans were opposed by the NAACP, the Capital Citizens Council, the Mother's League of Central High School, and the editor of the Arkansas Gazette, Harry Ashmore. Governor Faubus remained non-committal.
By the time the first African-American student graduated from Little Rock Central High School in the spring of 1958, events had not calmed down. The only senior among the nine students - Ernest Green - was given his diploma while police and federal troops stood in attendance. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. attended the graduation ceremony virtually unnoticed. Green later commented, "It's been an interesting year. I've had a course in human relations first hand."
Click here to learn more about the closing of Little Rock's high schools in 1958.