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Role in School Desegregation
The U.S. Supreme Court issued its historic Brown v. Board of Education in 1954. The decision declared all laws establishing segregated schools to be unconstitutional, and it called for the desegregation of all schools throughout the nation. The Little Rock School Board agreed to comply with the high court's ruling.

On the basis of excellent grades and attendance records, the NAACP selected nine black students and registered them for the all-white Little Rock Central High School. Several segregationist councils threatened to hold protests at Central High and physically block the black students from entering the school. Governor Orval Faubus deployed the Arkansas National Guard to support the segregationists on September 4, 1957. The sight of a line of soldiers blocking out the students made national headlines and polarized the nation. On September 9, the Little Rock School District issued a statement condemning the governor's deployment of soldiers, and called for a citywide prayer service on September 12. Woodrow Wilson Mann, the mayor of Little Rock, asked President Eisenhower to send federal troops to enforce integration and protect the nine students.

On September 24, the President ordered the 101st Airborne Division of the United States Army to Little Rock and federalized the entire 10,000-member Arkansas National Guard, taking it out of the hands of Faubus. The nine black students were admitted, but they were still subjected to a year of physical and verbal abuse by protestors and many of the white students. Black students faced suspension for any infraction, but white students were punished only when their offense was "both egregious and witnessed by an adult".

Arguing that if the schools remained integrated there would be an increase in violence, Faubus sought a multi-year delay in integration (see Cooper v. Aaron). This was denied by the Federal District Court. In order to prevent desegregation in the following year and give time to privatise the school in Little Rock, Faubus ordered the closure of all four public high schools on September 15, 1958 preventing both black and white students from attending school. This dramatically increased tension as many whites blamed the black community for the "Lost Year", especially NAACP head Daisy Bates. The schools reopened for the 1959 school year, but protests and retaliation toward b lack students continued. The schools reopened for the 1959 school year, but protests and retaliation toward b lack students continued.

Little Rock Central High School still functions as part of the Little Rock School District, and is now a National Historic Site that houses a Civil Rights Museum, administered in partnership with the National Park Service, to commemorate the events of the late 1950s. The Daisy Bates House, home to Daisy Bates, then the president of the Arkansas NAACP and a focal point for the students, was designated a National Historic Landmark in 2001 for its role in the episode.