Little Rock Nine Timeline

Although admitted under protection, the students endured a year of physical and verbal abuse from many white students.

By the end of September, the nine students were admitted to Little Rock Central High under the protection of the 101st Airborne Division, later joined by the Arkansas National Guard.

Integration began at Little Rock Central High School on September 4, 1957, amid opposition backed by the Arkansas National Guard.

Governor Orval Faubus deployed the Arkansas National Guard to support segregationists and said the troops were being used to preserve the peace as integration began.

President Dwight D. Eisenhower invoked the Insurrection Act of 1807, enabling federal troops to perform domestic law enforcement during the crisis.

Minnijean Brown was taunted by members of a group of white male students in the school cafeteria during lunch.

Image source: Minnijean Brown-Trickey

As the 1957–1958 school year drew to a close, Faubus petitioned the Federal District Court to postpone desegregation of Little Rock's public high schools.

Faubus called the Arkansas State Legislature into an extraordinary session after the federal courts rejected the requested delay in desegregation.

Faubus signed acts enabling him and the Little Rock School District to close all public schools, claiming that Little Rock needed to assert its rights and freedom against the federal decision.

After forty-four teachers and administrative staff were fired, three segregationist school board members were replaced with three moderate members.

To avoid further complications, Little Rock's public high schools were scheduled to reopen earlier than usual on August 12, 1959.

Faubus risked losing political support in the 1958 Democratic gubernatorial primary if he appeared to support integration. His party dominated Southern politics and opposed desegregation.

Image source: Orval Faubus

Cuban poet Nicolás Guillén published “Little Rock,” a bilingual English-and-Spanish composition denouncing racial segregation in the United States.

Image source: Nicolás Guillén

Harry Ashmore, editor of the Arkansas Gazette, won a Pulitzer Prize for his editorials about the Little Rock crisis.

Image source: Harry Ashmore

Life magazine profiled high school students affected by the Little Rock school closures.

The made-for-television docudrama Crisis at Central High depicted the events of the Little Rock crisis.

The Disney Channel broadcast The Ernest Green Story, a made-for-television film depicting the crisis.

Image source: The Ernest Green Story

Melba Pattillo Beals published Warriors Don't Cry, a memoir about her experiences as one of the Little Rock Nine.

Image source: Melba Pattillo Beals

Seven of the Little Rock Nine appeared on The Oprah Winfrey Show.

Image source: The Oprah Winfrey Show

Central High Museum, Inc. held a dedication ceremony observing the 40th anniversary of the desegregation.

Image source: Little Rock Central High School

Legislation passed designating Little Rock Central High School National Historic Site as a unit of the National Park Service. Central High Museum, Inc. donated its property to the Park Service.

Members of the Little Rock Nine created the Little Rock Nine Foundation, which established a scholarship program that had funded 60 university students by 2013.

President Bill Clinton honored the Little Rock Nine by presenting each member with a Congressional Gold Medal.

Image source: Congressional Gold Medal

The Daisy Bates House, home of Arkansas NAACP president Daisy Bates and a focal point for the students, was designated a National Historic Landmark for its role in the episode.

Image source: Daisy Bates House

Art director Ethel Kessler selected George Hunt's Little Rock Nine/America Cares painting for a 37-cent U.S. postage stamp.

Image source: United States Postal Service

The Little Rock Nine stamp appeared among ten stamps depicting Civil Rights Movement milestones in the Black History Month commemorative panel To Form a More Perfect Union. The artwork was labeled “1957 The Little Rock Nine.”

Image source: List of artworks on stamps of the United States

The United States Mint made available a silver dollar honoring the strength, determination, and courage of the African American students. Its obverse shows students accompanied by a soldier and nine stars, while its reverse shows Central High School.

Image source: Little Rock Central High School Desegregation silver dollar

The Little Rock Nine were invited to attend the inauguration of President-elect Barack Obama, the first African American elected president of the United States.

Image source: First inauguration of Barack Obama

Marquette University presented the Little Rock Nine with the Père Marquette Discovery Award, the university's highest honor.

Image source: Marquette University

The Little Rock Nine Foundation decided to fund exclusively students attending the Clinton School of Public Service at the University of Arkansas.

Elizabeth Eckford, Ernest Green, Gloria Ray Karlmark, Carlotta Walls LaNier, and Thelma Mothershed-Wair etched their initials onto metal plates welded onto the keel of the attack submarine USS Arkansas during a ceremony at Newport News Shipbuilding.

Image source: USS Arkansas (SSN-800)

Little Rock Central High School continues to operate as part of the Little Rock School District and is a National Historic Site housing a Civil Rights Museum administered in partnership with the National Park Service.