1,000 seems a bit much, don't you think, PL? However, I found this:
Quote:
1957 - Desegregation at Little Rock: Little Rock Central High School was to begin the 1957 school year desegregated. On September 2, the night before the first day of school, Governor Faubus announced that he had ordered the Arkansas National Guard to monitor the school the next day. When a group of nine black students arrived at Central High on September 3, they were kept from entering by the National Guardsmen. On September 20, judge Davies granted an injunction against Governor Faubus and three days later the group of nine students returned to Central High School. Although the students were not physically injured, a mob of 1,000 townspeople prevented them from remaining at school. Finally, President Eisenhower ordered 1,000 paratroopers and 10,000 National Guardsmen to Little Rock, and on September 25, Central High School was desegregated.
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The next day, September 24, President Dwight D. Eisenhower deployed elements of the 101st Airborne Division to Little Rock to protect the students. The students were admitted, but endured a year of physical and verbal abuse. The next year, 1958, Little Rock closed its public schools to avoid integration.
During their ordeal the Little Rock Nine were advised by Little Rock journalist and activist Daisy Bates. Bates and the Little Rock Nine received the Spingarn Medal in 1958. In 1996, seven of the Little Rock Nine appeared on the Oprah Winfrey Show. They came face to face with a few of the white students who tormented them as well as one student who befriended them.
Little Rock Central High School still functions as part of the Little Rock School District and now houses a Civil Rights Museum to commemorate the events of 1957. The Little Rock Nine were awarded the Congressional Gold Medal of Honor on November 9, 1999.
The students referred to as the Little Rock Nine were:
Ernest Green
Elizabeth Eckford
Jefferson Thomas
Terrence Roberts
Carlotta Walls Lanier
Minnijean Brown-Trickey
Gloria Ray Karlmark
Thelma Mothershed-Wair
Melba Pattillo Beals
The tenth person is Daisy Bates, the NAACP representative who worked with the Little Rock Nine.
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