Introduction

In 1955, following Brown v. Board of Education, the Little Rock school board accepted a plan of gradual integration presented by superintendent Virgil Blossom. According to the plan, Little Rock schools were to begin the integration process in the fall of 1957. However, when nine African American students enrolled in previously all-white Little Rock Central High School appeared in front of their new school on September 4, 1957, they were met by a white angry mob and the Arkansas National Guard. Governor of Arkansas Orval Faubus called the latter not to protect the black students’ right to an equal education but to block them from entering the school building. In response to this violation of federal laws, President Dwight Eisenhower federalized the Arkansas National Guard and ordered them to support the integration and protect the African American students. The students are known today as the Little Rock Nine and the events are remembered as the Little Rock Crisis. 

In this activity, you will examine a newspaper article that reports on a meeting between two members of the Little Rock Nine, Thelma Mothershed Wair and Terrence Roberts, and former governor Orval Faubus that took place over thirty years after the Little Rock Crisis. The meeting was part of the conference titled “The 50s: A Decade in Black and White.”