The 1957 crisis at Little Rock Central High School began when
Arkansas National Guard troops, under orders from Governor Orval
Faubus, blocked entrance to the school for black students in
September 1957.
After the US Federal Court ordered the troops
removed, the black students entered Central High and completed
the school year. Later, Faubus temporarily closed all city high
schools, but the tactic failed and in 1959 the first racially
integrated class graduated from Central High.
Elizabeth Ekford, one of nine black students chosen to begin the
integration of Central High, was initially blocked from entering
school on the first day of classes in 1957 by Arkansas National
Guardsmen. She is pictured walking walks to her bus stop through
a jeering mob after she had been blocked from entering school.
![[An Phoblacht]](http://republican-news.org/graphics/title_gifs/aprn.gif)
