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	Home			What happened in 1957
	50th Anniversary Activities Meet the Little Rock Nine What happened in 1957 Links			*On the morning of September 23, 1957, nine African-American teenagers held the line against an angry mob protesting integration in front of Little Rock's Central High School. As the students met their new classmates for the first time inside the school, outside violence escalated and the Little Rock police removed the Nine from the school for their safety. The next day, President Dwight D. Eisenhower ordered the U.S. Army’s 101st Airborne Division into Little Rock to escort the nine students into the school. One of the nine later remembered, “After three full days inside Central, I knew that integration is a much bigger word than I thought.“ This event, broadcast across the nation and world, was the site of the first important test for the implementation of the U.S. Supreme Court's historic Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka decision of 1954. Arkansas became the epitome of state resistance when the governor, Orval Faubus, directly questioned the authority of the federal court system and the validity of desegregation. The crisis at Little Rock's Central High School forced the nation to resolve to enforce African-American civil rights in the face of massive southern defiance during the years following the Brown decision. (Information from National Park Service website)*
	Members of the Commission Co-Chair Virgil Miller Co-Chair Nancy Rousseau Annie Abrams Rep. Fred Allen Dr. Edith Altheimer Ralph Brodie Sen. Irma Hunter Brown Shannon Butler Dale Charles William E. Clark II Cynthia East Ashley Fisher Dr. André Guerrero Schawnee Hightower Carlotta Walls LaNier Rep. Wilhelmina Lewellen Dr. Johanna Miller Lewis Mike Madell Dr. Katherine Mitchell Rep. Wilhelmina Lewellen Blake Rutherford Joy Secuban Derrick Smith Sen. Tracy Steele Minnijean Brown Trickey Darrin Williams Reginald Wright


	For more information on the Commission, contact: Phyllis Dickerson, Coordinator Little Rock Central High Integration 50th Anniversary 501-371-4480 pdickerson@littlerock.org