Racial segregation in the United States was the legally sanctioned practice of racially separating services and spaces such as education, healthcare, and housing. Segregation laws evolved from "slave codes" and Jim Crow laws imposed after the Civil War. Though the Civil Rights Act of 1964 officially outlawed segregation, the impacts of racist laws are still felt today; many services, particularly housing and education, remain racially segregated across America.
In 1896, the U.S. Supreme Court case Plessy v. Ferguson upheld the practice of race-based segregation so long as black and white facilities were "separate but equal." In practice, segregated services for Black Americans were rarely, if ever, equal. In 1954, the landmark case Brown v. Board of Education overturned segregation in public schools, to great resistance from the white American majority. The decision called for the desegregation of all public schools.
Under the guidance of NAACP member Daisy Bates, a group of nine Black high school students, selected for their high academic achievement and outstanding attendance records, were chosen to enroll in the previously all-white Little Rock Central High School. The Little Rock Nine (Melba Pattillo Beals, Minnijean Brown, Elizabeth Eckford, Ernest Green, Gloria Ray Karlmark, Carlotta Walls LaNier, Thelma Mothershed, Terrence Roberts, and Jefferson Thomas) were immediately met with harassment from the white community. Under orders from Governor Orval Faubus, they were also physically blocked from entering the school by the National Guard. Though Faubus's stated intentions in calling the National Guard were to "preserve the peace" and protect the students from "imminent danger of tumult, riot and breach of peace," historians today conclude that Faubus's choices were politically motivated, as he sought reelection from a political party that opposed integration.
In response, President Eisenhower issued an executive order that brought in the National Guard to support the integration efforts, escorting the students into school and protecting them from racial violence. Though the students successfully attended Little Rock Central High School for a year, they suffered physical and verbal abuse from their fellow students, who were rarely punished. In 1958, Orval Faubus delayed desegregation, arguing that integration would increase violence. Faubus closed black and white schools alike and fired dozens of teachers and administrators. This decree increased violence against the Black community in Little Rock.
