A LONG DAY IN LITTLE ROCK Fifteen year old Elizabeth Eckford stood Central High School in Little Rock before the entrance of Little Rock Arkansas It was the morning of September 4 1957 The school building was only a short distance away All she had to do was make her way up the walkway and through the doors But Elizabeth noticed something strange A line of soldiers had formed in front of the doors The soldiers broke ranks to let other students into the school Elizabeth hoped they would let her in too But when she got near them they did not move She walked toward Arkansas National Guard soldiers turned Elizabeth Eckford away as she tried to enter Little Rock Central High School on September 4 1957
SEPARATE BUT EQUAL In 1896 the US Supreme Court decided an important case called Plessy v Ferguson The court decided that segregation was legal Segregation was the forced separation of black people in public spaces Black people had to use separate facilities such as bathrooms The court ruled that as long as the same facilities were offered to black people segregation did not violate the US Constitution This was called the separate but equal doctrine But often facilities for black people were not as good as those reserved for white people a different door They barred her way again The soldiers were part of the Arkansas National Guard The governor had called on them to keep black students from entering the school The soldiers carried rifles Elizabeth was one of nine African American students who were supposed to start at Central High School that fall They would be the first African Americans in Arkansas to attempt to attend what had been an all-white school This process of bringing black people into places that had traditionally not accepted them
Elizabeth Eckford left sits at home with her mother in 1957 was called integration Many white people in the state opposed integration A crowd gathered near the front of the school as Elizabeth tried to enter Everyone was staring at Elizabeth They did not want her there DAISY BATES Elizabeth and the other black students had been admitted to Central High School largely because of the efforts of Daisy Bates Bates was the head of the local chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People NAACP The NAACP
