September 23, 1957The “Little Rock Nine” returned to Central High School where they were finally enrolled. Units of the United States Army remained at the school for the rest of the academic year to guarantee their safety. The nine students arrived at Central High School on September 3 and were greeted by an angry mob of white students, parents, and citizens determined to stop integration. Governor Orval M. Faubus intervened, ordering the Arkansas National Guard to keep the nine African American students from entering the school. Faced with no other choice, the “Little Rock Nine” gave up their attempt to attend Central High School which soon became the center of a national debate about civil rights, racial discrimination and States’s rights. On September 20, 1957, Federal Judge Ronald Davies ordered Governor Faubus to remove the National Guard from the Central High School’s entrance and to allow integration to take its course in Little Rock. When Faubus defied the court order, President Dwight Eisenhower dispatched nearly 1,000 paratroopers and federalized the 10,000 Arkansas National Guard troops who were to ensure that the school would be open to the nine students.
