May 22, 1954

The Little Rock School Board issued a statement saying it would comply with the Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas decision that racial segregation in public education was a violation of the Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution. This statement contrasts with initial delays in devising a desegregation plan, followed by outright resistance to desegregation on the part of the school board. In 1957, that resistance made Little Rock Central High School a national and international symbol of racial conflict.