High School Segregation

Many African Americans in the early 1950s were not allowed to go to public swimming pools, use public restrooms, visit the zoo, or be enrolled in public schools. Around this time, the United States began to understand what was wrong with segregation which eventually led to the Civil Rights Movement. Along with all other movements, the Civil Rights Movement had to be started off by an event. The Little Rock Nine’s admittance to Central High School was seen as this start. In 1957, Arkansas state powers were in opposition to the idea of desegregated schools and when the Little Rock Nine enrolled in Central High School, the Arkansas community was enraged because African Americans attending the same school as white students seemed completely wrong;
The U.S. Supreme Court ruled that racially segregated schools were illegal on May 17, 1954 in the case of Brown v. Board of Education. One year later, after a second ruling occurred, segregated schools were to be integrated in an intentional speed. In 1955, a plan was adopted by Little Rock public school boards stating that these segregated schools were to be desegregated gradually and that the desegregation process would start in 1957. Carl L. Bankston stated that “One of the first and most widely publicized tests of the new federal position on school segregation came in Little Rock, Arkansas” (581-3.) Virgil Blossom, School Superintendent, devised the plan that would begin integrating public schools and would start with Central High School then later desegregate lower grades. To start the integration of Central High School, Daisy Bates, President of the National Association for the
Once the school year had begun, the Little Rock Nine were harassed and bullied by their peers. “The black students were pushed down the stairs, had glue put on their seats, called bad names, and had their lockers ransacked and spit on.” Carlotta Walls LaNier, youngest of the Nine, remembered having to avoid her locker and even the bathroom when she spoke to a charter school in southeast Colorado Springs. (Gazette, n.pag.). Governor Faubus closed all of Little Rock’s public schools upon the beginning of the 1958-1959 school year. All of the white students then transferred into private schools. On June 18, 1959, the closing of public schools was declared unconstitutional so, the 1959-1960 school year began a month early and enrolled both African American and white students. The much waited for integration of Central High School gave the Nine a sense of pride and hope. The Little Rock Nine, Minnijean Brown, Elizabeth Eckford, Ernest Green, Thelma Mothershed, Melba Patillo, Gloria Ray, Terrence Roberts, Jefferson Thomas, and Carlotta Walls, all accomplished much in their adult lives. Many years later, these men and women were honored and thanked. “In 2009 they were invited to the inauguration of Barack Obama, the nation’s first black president” (Junior Scholastic/Current Events). Along with many invitations, President William J. Clinton designated Central High School