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Arkansas is the first state to admit African Americans to state universites without being required by court order.
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This plan was also known as the Blossum plan. The plan called for desegregation to begin in the fall of 1957 at Central and go down to the lower grades over the next six years.
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Congress passes the Civil Rights Act of 1957. This law gave attorney general greater power over school desegreation and federal government authority over violations of African American vothing rights.
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The "little rock nine" are nine African American students who had volunteered to integrate Little Rock's Central High School. Governor Orval Faubus called out the Arkansas National Gaurd to prevent the nine students from entering.
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When Elizabeth Eckford arrived at the campus she was confronted by an angry mob of segregationist protesters. She finally made it the bus stop where two friendly whites stayed with her because she was not let into school.
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President Dwight Eisenhower places the National Gaurd under federal control over the "Little Rock Nine" and orders a thousand paratroppers into Little Rock.
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(I couldn't find the exact date for this one, but I know it is in December of 1957). Minnijean Brown was a member of the "Little Rock Nine" and was suspended for dropping a bowl of chilli when two white boys were picking on her and later expelled in february for calling a girl "white trash" after the girl was taunting her.
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Ernest Green, one of the members of the "Little Rock Nine" is the first black to graduate from Central High School in 1958.
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At the end of the school year, Governor Orval Faubus decides to shut down Central High School rather then let integration contunue.
