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Brown vs. Board of Education
In 1951, a class action suit was filed against the Board of Education of the City of Topeka, Kansas in the U.S. District Court for the District of Kansas. The plaintiffs were thirteen Topeka parents on behalf of their twenty children. The suit called for the school district to reverse its policy of racial segregation. -
Harry Lemley
Federal District Judge Harry Lemley grants the delay of integration until January 1961, stating that while black students have the constitutional right to attend white shools, saying that the time has not come for them to enjoy that right. -
Access Denied
Governor Orval Faubus defied the court, calling in the Arkansas National Guard to stop the nine Africa American students from entering the school. The students then remained at home for 2 weeks. -
Schools closed
Public high schools in Little Rock close for the year, sending the city's 3,698 high school students to seek alternatives. More than 750 whites enroll in newly established private T.J. Raney High School. Others leave town or the state to live with friends or relatives to continue their education. -
Faubus dismisses the National Guard
Ten days later Faubus met with Eisenhower and Faubus agreed to use the National Guard to protect the teenagers, but Faubus really dismissed them leaving the students unprotected to an angry lynch happy mob. -
Back to school again
Under Federal escort the Nine were escorted back to school. -
Eiesnhower's orders
President Esienhower ordered 1,200 101st Airborne Division members to escort The Nine in to school. The military presence remained for the whole year. This was the first time The Nine entered the school. While the Nine entered there was a mob outside beating and thrashing reporters, and the Nine was evacuated by noon. -
Minnijean Brown
One of The Nine, Minnijean Brown is suspended by the Board of Education for the rest of the year for spilling her chilli on two white boys for calling her names and treating her unequal. She said dhe just couldn't take it anymore. -
Ernest Green
Ernest Green becomes the first black student to gradute from Central High. -
Supreme Court Ruling
The Supreme Court rules that Little Rock must continue with its integration plan. The School Board announces the opening of the city's high schools on September 15. Governor Faubus orders Little Rock's three high schools closed.
