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LITTLE ROCK CENTRAL: 50 YEARS LATER

Sept. 1927
Little Rock Senior (renamed Central in 1953) High School opens its doors for the first time.

Sept. 1929
Paul Laurence Dunbar High School, the high school for African-American students, opens.

May 17, 1954
The United States Supreme Court rules racial segregation in public schools is unconstitutional in Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka. Five days later, the Little Rock School Board issues a policy statement saying it will comply with the Supreme Court's decision. In May 1955, the Supreme Court further defines the standard of implementation for integration as being "with all deliberate speed," in Brown II and charges the federal courts with establishing guidelines for compliance.

Aug. 23, 1954
The NAACP petitions the Little Rock School Board for immediate integration. Public schools in Charleston, Ark., admit 11 black students, making that Franklin County community the first in the former Confederacy's 11 states to end school segregation.

May 24, 1955
The Little Rock School Board adopts the Blossom Plan of gradual integration, beginning with the high school level (starting in Sept. 1957) and the lower grades during the next six years.

Jan. 23, 1956
Twenty-seven black students are turned away when they try to enroll for the spring semester at Central High, Tech High, Forest Heights Junior High and Forest Park Elementary School. Their enrollment is refused on the grounds that school authorities haven't yet had time to make plans.

Jan. 28, 1956
Gov. Faubus reports that "85 percent of all the people'' in Arkansas opposed school desegregation in a statewide poll.

Feb. 8, 1956
Federal judge John E. Miller dismisses the NAACP suit (Aaron v. Cooper), declaring that the Little Rock School Board has acted in "utmost good faith" in setting up its plan of gradual integration. In April, the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals upholds Judge Miller's dismissal. The federal district court retains jurisdiction over the case, however, making the School Board's implementation of the Blossom Plan a court mandate.

March 11, 1956
All eight members of Arkansas' congressional delegation are among the 19 U.S. senators and 81 U.S. representatives to sign the Southern Manifesto. The document denounces the Supreme Court's 1954 Brown decision and pledges to use "all lawful means'' to have it reversed.

April 26, 1956
Little Rock integrates its municipal bus system three days after the U.S. Supreme Court outlawed segregation on intrastate buses.

May 9, 1956
Little Rock's new Horace Mann High School, a segregated facility for black students, opens. Superintendent Blossom calls the $925,000 school "the very best this community could offer.''

July 11, 1956
Faubus tells a campaign rally, "No school district will be forced to mix the races as long as I am governor of Arkansas.''

Feb. 26, 1957
Faubus signs into law four segregation bills passed by the Arkansas Legislature. The laws establish the Arkansas Sovereignty Commission to make anti-integration investigations; authorize parents to refuse to send their children to desegregated schools; require organizations such as the NAACP to disclose membership and financial data; and allow the use of school district funds to hire lawyers and pay other legal costs of opposing desegregation suits.

Aug. 27, 1957
The segregationist Mothers' League of Central High School holds its first public meeting. It files a motion seeking a temporary injunction against school integration. Two days later, Pulaski Chancellor Murray Reed grants the injunction on the grounds that integration could lead to violence. Federal judge Ronald Davies nullifies the injunction and orders the School Board to proceed with its desegregation plan.

Sept. 2, 1957 (Labor Day)
Governor Orval Faubus orders the Arkansas National Guard to prohibit African-American students from entering Central High School and announces his plans in a televised speech.

Sept. 20, 1957
Federal judge Ronald Davies rules that Faubus has not used the troops to preserve law and order and orders them removed. Faubus removes the Guardsmen and the Little Rock police department moves in.

Sept. 23, 1957
An angry mob of over 1,000 white people gathers in front of Central High School, while nine African-American students are escorted inside. The Little Rock police remove the nine children for their safety. President Eisenhower calls the rioting "disgraceful" and orders federal troops into Little Rock.

Sept. 24, 1957
1,200 members of the 101st Airborne Division of Fort Campbell, Kentucky, arrive in Little Rock. The Arkansas National Guard is placed under federal orders.

Sept. 25, 1957
Under troop escort, the Little Rock Nine are escorted back into Central High School for their first full day of classes.

May 25, 1958
Senior Ernest Green becomes the first African-American student to graduate from Central High School.

June 3, 1958
Highlighting numerous discipline problems during the school year, the school board asks the court for permission to delay the desegregation plan in Cooper v. Aaron.

June 21, 1958
Judge Harry Lemley grants the delay of integration until Jan. 1961, stating that while the African-American students have a constitutional right to attend white schools, the "time has not come for them to enjoy [that right]."

Sept. 12, 1958
Under appeal, the United States Supreme Court rules that Little Rock must continue with its desegregation plan. The School Board orders the high schools to open Sept. 15. Governor Faubus orders four Little Rock high schools closed as of 8:00 a.m., Sept. 15, 1958, pending the outcome of a public vote.

Sept. 16, 1958
The Women's Emergency Committee to Open Our Schools (WEC) forms and begins to solicit support for reopening the schools.

Sept. 27, 1958
Citizens vote 19,470 to 7,561 against integration and the schools remain closed.

May 5, 1959
Segregationist members of the school board vote not to renew the contracts of 44 teachers and administrators who they say supported integration.

May 8, 1959
The WEC and local businessmen form Stop This Outrageous Purge (STOP) and solicit voter signatures to recall the three segregationist board members. Segregationists form the Committee to Retain Our Segregated Schools (CROSS).

May 25, 1959
STOP wins the recall election in close victory. Three segregationists are voted off the school board and three moderate members are retained.

Aug. 12, 1959
Little Rock public high schools reopen nearly a month early. Segregationists rally at the state capitol, where Faubus advises them that it was a "dark" day, but they should not give up the struggle. They then march to Central High School, where the police and fire departments break up the mob.

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