Unit 9 Day 8 Little Rock Nine Quote

Unit 9 Day 8 (Little Rock Nine) Quote: “I can't imagine any set of circumstances that would ever induce me to send Federal troops into a Federal Court and into any area to enforce the orders of a Federal Court, because I believe that the common sense of America will never require it. ” - Dwight D. Eisenhower Objective: Explain the desegregation of public schools Focus Question: Why was the Brown decision so important in regards to segregation throughout the country? State Standards: Strand 1 Concept 9 PO 3

Little Rock Nine • In the 1954 U. S. Supreme Court case Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, the Court ruled that public schools should be racially integrated. • The old precedent of “separate but equal” was declared unconstitutional.

• In 1957, nine African American high school students known as the Little Rock Nine tried to attend the all-white Central High School. The Governor sent in the state National Guard to stop the students from attending.

• President Eisenhower responded by sending over 1, 000 U. S. soldiers to escort and protect the students.

• In 1955, a huge bus boycott occurred in Montgomery, Alabama when an African American seamstress, Rosa Parks, refused to give up her seat in the front of a public bus to a white man.

• The boycott, led by reverend Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. lasted for 381 days and in the end the Supreme Court decided that Alabama’s bus segregation laws were unconstitutional.