Adapted From: American Experience: Way Back: American History for Kids
PBSKids Online: Stand up for Your Rights, http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/kids/civilrights/features_school.html

The history of The Little Rock 9 truly amazes me. I was introduced to it this year in a 4th grade classroom at The Tenderloin Community School in San Francisco. With a room full of beautifully different faces, we experienced together a story of resiliency.

In Arkansas in 1957, 3 years after the Supreme Court made segregation illegal, many African Americans were still being forced out of white schools. Little Rock Central High School was one such school. Nine African American teenagers known as The Little Rock Nine, would be the first African Americans to test civil rights in the Arkansas school.

White protesters would greet the students in the mornings but the students would walk past them and go into the school. One morning, Arkansas National Guardsmen turned the nine away, and along with police, stood by while the mob antagonized them. History states the protesters pelted the black students’ cars with stones, assaulted them, and threatened their lives. Even though they were scared, the nine students wouldn’t give up. They kept trying and stood up for their rights.

One September morning that year, The Little Rock Nine arrived at school and entered through a side door. When the protesters outside realized the students had entered the school, violence exploded. Once again, the Little Rock Nine were forced to leave the school. But they did not give up. They returned to their school the next day, this time protected by United States Army troops sent by President Dwight D. Eisenhower.

“For the Little Rock Nine, the battle was only beginning. Throughout the school year, they faced physical and verbal assaults from white students, as well as death threats against themselves, their families, and other members of the black community. And one of the nine, Minnijean Brown, was expelled from Central after fighting back against white students who abused her. But the following May, Ernest Green became the first African American student ever to graduate from Central High. The courageous actions of the Little Rock Nine had helped open the door of education for African Americans all across the nation.”