Little Rock Nine (1957)

Site: Little Rock Central High School, 1500 S. Park St., Little Rock, Ark.

Then: In the autumn of 1957, nine black teenagers enrolled at Central High, an all-white school. Their arrival marked the first major attempt to enforce the U.S. Supreme Court’s 1954 Brown v. Board of Education decision declaring unconstitutional all state laws that allowed separate public schools for African Americans and whites.

Arkansas Governor Orval Faubus disagreed with the high court ruling, and on Sept. 4, 1957, used the Arkansas National Guard to block the nine students from entering the building. A group of white citizens also gathered, beating several journalists, jeering the students and hurling bricks at the school. Police evacuated the nine students.

The uprising prompted President Dwight Eisenhower to deploy federal troops to ensure the students’ safety at the school, according to the National Park Service, which later declared Little Rock High a National Historic Site. The “Little Rock Nine” finished the school year under federal protection.

Photo: Soldiers from the 101st Airborne Division escorted the Little Rock Nine students into Central High School in Little Rock, Ark., in September 1957.