Little Rock Arkansas and Central High school desegregation.
It's September 4, 1957. Melba and her mother are driving to school. They're nervous. It's sure to be a tough day. Ever since news reports identified Melba as one of the black students who will be entering Central High, her grandmother has been staying up nights — a shotgun in her lap — to guard the family.
Melba's mother parks the car and they hurry toward the school. Then they see it — a huge, raging mob of white people. Angry voices scream, "TWO, FOUR, SIX, EIGHT, WE AIN'T GONNA INTEGRATE!"
There are also soldiers with guns and bayonets. Governor Orval Faubus has called out the Arkansas National Guard. He is not going to let integration take place.
As they try to sneak away, Melba and her mother are chased by a group of white men brandishing ropes. One man gets close enough to rip the sleeve of her mother's blouse. Another takes a swing at Melba with a tree branch.
Melba and her mother are lucky. They make it home alive.
Governor Faubus and the Little Rock School Board go to court to stop integration at Central High School. Thurgood Marshall, a lawyer famous for working for the NAACP, argues for Melba and the other students. The judge rules that integration should continue. /On September 23, 1957, Melba finally steps inside Central High. She enters through a back door, with local police and state troopers guarding her. There's a screaming mob outside again today. Still, she has made it inside.
It's a short, terrifying school day. Just before noon, the mob breaks through the barricades. They threaten to take over the school and hang the black students. The police know they're outnumbered. They've got to get those nine kids out — now!
Melba and her friends are led to the basement garage. Crouching low in the back of a car, Melba is driven to safety. It's the third time she has nearly been killed over integration.
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/eyesontheprize/story/03_schools.html
The Battle Over Southern School Desegregation, 1954-1963
1 · Topeka, Kansas
The landmark 1954 Supreme Court decision, Brown v. Board of Education, declares segregated schools unequal. Kansan father Oliver Brown had filed suit to improve his daughter Linda's schooling.
2. Tuscaloosa, Alabama
In 1956, Autherine Lucy enters the University of Alabama. Assaulted by angry mobs, she is suspended for safety reasons after three days, and later expelled. In 1963, Governor George Wallace will again bar African American students from the university until the federal government intervenes.
3. Little Rock, Arkansas
The Little Rock school board integrates Central High School in 1957. Enraged segregationists protest until U.S. Army troops arrive to protect the students and enforce the law.
4. Richmond, Virginia
In 1958, Governor Lindsay Almond, Jr. closes schools in Charlottesville, Norfolk, and other parts of Virginia rather than integrate them.
5. · New Orleans, Louisiana
A major riot began when four African American first-graders tried to integrate an all-white school in 1960.
6. Oxford, Mississippi
James Meredith files suit to attend the University of Mississippi in 1962. His legal victory triggers lethal protests by segregationists. He is ultimately admitted under federal protection.
The decision in the Supreme Court case Brown v. Board of Education was a very important one for students in the South. The court said that children couldn't be separated into different public schools because of race. A judge ordered Clinton High School in Anderson County to admit African American students. This process was known as desegregation.
In the summer of 1956, 12 African American students registered for classes. Soon, angry whites from Clinton and other areas arrived and wanted to put a stop to desegregation. People were nervous, but the "Clinton 12" marched down the street and entered Clinton High School on August 26. Although nothing happened on the first day, the next day tensions grew. Eventually riots broke out, and crowds gathered around the Clinton courthouse. Violence swept through the town, bullets were fired and dynamite was thrown on African American property. Governor Clement sent 600 National Guardsmen to help calm the situation. This was the first time the National Guard was used in the civil rights movement.
Teachers, civic leaders and others were constantly being threatened. The parents of the twelve students held a meeting and decided to stop sending their children to the school. A white preacher and some others promised to walk the Clinton 12 to school. The parents agreed, but the preacher was attacked and beaten for escorting the students. This violence led to national attention from newspaper and TV reporters. Through it all, the Clinton 12 continued to attend classes. They even met Rosa Parks at the Highlander School! At the end of the school year, one of the students became the first African American to graduate from a formerly all-white school in Tennessee. Who was he? His name was Robert "Bobby" Cain Jr. (middle). These brave students led the fight for children's rights to a good education.