In September of 1957, the country was changed forever by the
“Crisis at Central High”—one of the first federally ordered
integration acts. At that time, the United States was a nation
of racial inequalities and segregation. When nine courageous
black students dared to challenge racial segregation in public
schools by enrolling at the all-white Central High School, the
“Little Rock Nine” became an integral part of the fight for
equal opportunity in America. History of the Little Rock Nine &
Brown v. Board of Education In 1954, the Supreme Court's Brown
v. Board of Education of Topeka decision officially declared
segregation in public schools as unconstitutional. All U.S.
public schools were instructed to integrate. Within a week,
Arkansas was one of two Southern states to announce it would
begin immediately to take steps to comply with the new ruling.
The Arkansas Law School had been integrated since 1949, and by
1957, seven of Arkansas’s eight state universities had
desegregated. Blacks had been appointed to