As a direct result of the 1954 Supreme Court decision of Brown v. Board of Education, schools across the nation were ordered to integrate their public schools. In 1957, the NAACP helped to register nine African American students at the Little Rock Central High School. They were met with massive opposition, including from the governor of Arkansas. It eventually took the intervention of President Eisenhower to ensure that these nine students could safely attend school. Even after they were admitted to the school, these students faced daily harassment from their classmates and even from school faculty.

This is an important event to study because it represents the first significant application of racial desegregation. It was a watershed moment in the civil rights movement and set the tone for much of what followed over the next decade and a half. It highlighted the resistance that civil rights activists would face and showed where opposition and support would come from. It was also an example of the success of the application of peaceful resistance. Despite the vast difficulties that these nine young people faced, it also showed that the civil rights movement could indeed make progress.

Today it can be difficult to imagine what the Little Rock Nine went through. For students today, studying this event allows them to empathize with a group of young people who were attempting to do something as simple as attending school. It highlights the depth of racial prejudice and the courage of those who stood against it. It shows the power of fortitude in the face of bigoted discrimination and opposition.