On May 17, 1954, the U.S. Supreme Court declared that segregated schools were unconstitutional in Brown v. Board of Education. However, some people like Arkansas Governor Orval Faubus defied that ruling.

3 years later, in 1957, there was a historic confrontation that generated worldwide attention. At the center of the controversy were nine black children who wanted only to have the opportunity for a better education.

Their Names were: Melba, Ernie, Gloria Ray, Minnijean, Thelma, Terry, Carlotta, Jeff and Elizabeth.

"We paid for integration with our innocence. It transformed us into warriors who dared not cry even when we suffered intolerable pain." -Melba Pattillo Beals

Despite the opposition, these nine brave students registered to be the first African Americans to attend Central High School.

The nine students were recruited by Daisy Bates, President of the Arkansas NAACP. They were carefully chosen because both Mrs. Bates and others from the Arkansas NAACP believed they all had the strength and determination to face the resistance they would encounter. One of the girls remembers it as being like a soldier on the battlefield.

On September 2, 1957, Governor Faubus said that he would call the Arkansas National Guard to prevent these students from entering Central High. There were protests against integration and a judge said that desegregation would continue as planned the next day.

Two days later, The Little Rock Nine arrived for their first day of school. Eight of them arrived together with Bates. However,Elizabeth did not have a phone so she arrived alone and was treated terribly by the protesters and the National Guard. One of the women even spat on her.