Soon after Brown v. Board, the Little Rock School District School Board issued a public statement its intent to comply with the decision, and directed Superintendent Virgil Blossom to make a plan. Once declared "Man of the Year" by the Arkansas Democrat in 1955, many believed that he had ambitions to run for governor someday and seemed in position to take the lead on the issue. His insistence to form a plan by himself supported that argument. The Blossom Plan set desegregation to occur with a crawl that began with admitting a token number of African-Americans at Central High School, 16 in total, with more transfers every year—later came middle and elementary schools that were set to desegregate as late as 1963. Blossom later included provisions that allowed white students the option to not attend the all-black Horace Mann High School, thus limiting desegregation, and that Hall High School was to remain predominately white.
He made the rounds of Little Rock's civic clubs to promote his plan, although he ignored the feedback or offers to help. He even rebuffed a group of interested teachers and students at Central High, the Parent Teachers Association, and even the successful superintendent of racially diverse schools in Washington, DC. A key interest in desegregation, Little Rock's African-American community, had no input.
The school board approved it and sought potential black students for the first term of its enactment in 1957. The delayed time frame angered many in the black community, who now looked for a legal solution rather than an unlikely political one.
The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) took legal action against the troubling plan. It represented 33 students and sued the school district, arguing that the Blossom Plan violated the "all deliberate speed" language in the Supreme Court's decision. The Eight Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals upheld the school district, arguing that it had acted on good faith, and effectively endorsed the Blossom Plan.
Nine African-American students- Minnijean Brown, Elizabeth Eckford, Ernest Green, Thelma Mothershed, Melba Pattillo, Gloria Ray, Terrence Roberts, Jefferson Thomas, and Carlotta Walls- enrolled at Central High School. The response from Governor Orval Faubus and segregationists was a violent reaction that put soldiers on guard at Central High School. The response from Governor Orval Faubus and segregationists was a violent reaction that put soldiers on guard at Central and drove a city into crisis. Neighbors, classmates, and members of all forms of communities fell into mistrust, arguing about what was right and wrong.
The resulting Little Rock Central High School Desegregation Crisis has been one of the most studied events in U.S. History with all of its intricacies.
The following sections follow these events:
Jared Craig is the virtual exhibit coordinator at UA Little Rock Center for Arkansas History and Culture. His research interests include political history in the American South, folklore, crime history, and the media.