The Explosion

After Governor Faubus' televised address, Federal Judge Ronald Davies issued an order: desegregation at Central High must proceed on September 4; however, the governor stood firm and committed to a showdown with the federal government. Segregationist mobs turned out in large numbers outside the school, forcing President Dwight D. Eisenhower to enforce the federal judiciary.

Units of the Arkansas National Guard took position around Central High School, and with it came mobs of Arkansans and press waiting for the Little Rock Nine to arrive. Daisy Bates, native Arkansan and NAACP activist, coordinated everything. Overnight, her plans changed to drive all the students together. As the nine gathered at her home at 1207 W. 28^th Street, some two miles from the school, people realized that Elizabeth Eckford was not there. Because the Eckfords did not own a telephone, no one had reached her with information of the change of plans. Eckford went to the school alone.

She arrived believing that the National Guardsmen were there to protect her. They turned her away to the angry mob under the gaze of shocked reporters recording the whole event. Will Counts, an Arkansas Democrat photographer, followed her to a nearby bus bench and noticed a white, high school girl shouting and snarling at Eckford.

Eckford took a seat on the bench as antagonists swarmed her, with her face shielded with large-framed sunglasses. A reporter put his hand on her shoulder and offered the only advice he could give: "Don't let them see you cry."

That night, the power of television, still a relatively new technology to most households, introduced the world to what racism looked like in shocking ways. The images of the mobs, soldiers, and Counts' photo of Eckford were broadcasted around the world.

The Arkansas Gazette printed a bold stance that criticized Faubus' actions as reckless with the headline, "The Crisis that Mr. Faubus Made." Readers who disagreed with the newspaper responded with canceled subscriptions, while Columbia University School of Journalism awarded the paper with the Pulitzer Prize.

Judge Davies ordered Faubus to remove the National Guard on September 20, and the governor complied. The Little Rock Nine entered the school on September 23, but had to leave early in the back of station wagons. The Little Rock Police Department had taken over the outside barricades and did not control the mobs that had swelled to over 1,000 people.

Jefferson Thomas later recalled in an oral history interview that as the nine gathered in the principal's office for their escort outside of Central, he heard one segregationist plead with the Little Rock police chief to give up the students. "Just let us have them," Thomas heard the segregationist say before suggesting another offer. "Well, just give us one of them to lynch."

That day, President Eisenhower issued Executive Order 10730 and ordered the 101^st Airborne Division to Little Rock. The soldiers flew to the Little Rock Air Force Base and escorted the Little Rock Nine on September 25. To avoid any further misuse from Faubus, Eisenhower nationalized the Arkansas National Guard and used them for security.

Even while under guard of the 101^st and guardsmen, the Little Rock Nine suffered regular physical and verbal abuse from white students. It reached a boiling point in February 1958, when a group of white girls taunted Minnijean Brown and tossed a bag full of combination locks at her head. Brown called them "white trash" in retaliation. The school expelled her, as segregationists celebrated by distributing cards reading, "ONE DOWN...EIGHT TO GO."

Ernest Green, the Little Rock Nine's sole senior student, graduated in May 1958. His family gathered to see him receive his diploma. Seated next to them was Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.