It was 1957, the start of another school year at Central High in Little Rock, Arkansas. This academic year was different, though. It began with huge protests. White students, and their parents, did not want to integrate their school.
The governor of Arkansas, Orval Faubus, agreed. He did not believe in integrated schools and called in the National Guard to prevent African-American students from entering Central High.
With clubs in hand, the Guardsmen were doing the job the Governor had asked them to do. It didn’t seem to matter that the Supreme Court of the United States had already ordered that schools could no longer be "separate but equal."
Ending the immediate crisis (but not the anger of Little Rock citizens), President Eisenhower nationalized the Arkansas National Guard and assigned 1,200 paratroopers to the city. That action forced the Governor’s hand and permitted the nine African-American children to attend Central High.
The Governor’s actions were not the last regarding anti-integration, anti-busing protests.