May 24, 1955

The Little Rock School Board adopted a plan for gradual integration, known as the Blossom Plan (also known as the Little Rock Phase Program), calling for desegregation to begin in the fall of 1957 at Central High School and filter down to the lower grades over the next six years. Nine African-American students (the Little Rock Nine) began attendance at Central High in 1957, sparking a nationwide crisis when Arkansas governor Orval Faubus, in defiance of a federal court order, called out the Arkansas National Guard to prevent the Nine from entering.

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