State of Arkansas. Their enrollment was followed by the Little Rock Crisis , in which the students were initially prevented from entering the racially segregated school by Orval Faubus , the Governor of Arkansas. They then attended after the intervention of President Dwight D. The U. Supreme Court issued its historic Brown v. Board of Education , U. Tied to the Fourteenth Amendment to the U. Constitution , the decision declared all laws establishing segregated schools to be unconstitutional , and it called for the desegregation of all schools throughout the nation.
In Little Rock , Arkansas , the school board agreed to comply with the high court's ruling. Virgil Blossom , the Superintendent of Schools, submitted a plan of gradual integration to the school board on May 24, , which the board unanimously approved.
The plan would be implemented during the fall of the school year, which would begin in September By , the NAACP had registered nine black students to attend the previously all-white Little Rock Central High, selected on the criteria of excellent grades and attendance.
When integration began on September 4, , the Arkansas National Guard was called in to "preserve the peace". Originally at orders of the governor, they were meant to prevent the black students from entering due to claims that there was "imminent danger of tumult, riot and breach of peace" at the integration.
However, President Eisenhower issued Executive Order , which federalized the Arkansas National Guard and ordered them to support the integration on September 23 of that year, after which they protected the African American students.
