Sparking from the Brown vs Topeka board of education court case, integration was due to take place in schools- ‘Little rock high school’ to be one of the first to mix white and black students. At the beginning of the 1957 term 9 black students, selected as some of the top in the country were admitted into the school in Arkansas. These were named the ‘Little rock nine’. Upon first day entry a large crowd of protesters blocked the gate, to stop the black students from entering. Some of these people came from different states around the South of America to stop integration and the civil right movement by any means possible. They even had support from the national guard with them, abuse was shouted and they were disallowed entry despite the legislation from the senate.

The next day the same happened to the nine. The following day body guards were positioned to force people to let the students in. Although this could be said to be an achievement, the laws set in the North were clearly not being acted upon in the South. 400,000 were due to be desegregated, and even this was only a small proportion of children and students in America. Little Rock high school was also closed down at the end of the academic year meaning all of this progress was ineffective