Historical Photos From These Civil Rights Battlefields
Topeka, Kansas, 1953.
Getty Images Linda Brown, the lead plaintiff in the Brown v. Board of Education case, sits in a segregated classroom at Monroe School.Topeka, Kansas. March, 1953.
Getty Images Linda Brown walks past Sumner Elementary School. Though this school was only seven blocks away from her home, she was not allowed to attend.Topkea, Kansas, 1953.
Getty Images Inside a segregated high school classroom, five years before the school was forced to accept African-American students.Mansfield, Ohio. 1960.
Getty Images Children lead a march calling for the end of segregated schools.Washington, D.C. 1958.
National Archives At the Arksanas State Capitol, Southern whites hold a protest of their own.Little Rock, Arkansas. 1959.
Wikimedia Commons Arkansas Governor Orval Faubus talks to a crowd of segregationist protesters outside the state capitol. In defiance of the Supreme Court, Faubus would deploy the National Guard to keep African-American children from entering a white school.Little Rock, Arkansas. 1959.
Wikimedia Commons Six-year-old Ruby Bridges smiles on her first day in an integrated school. Bridges would have to walk past crowds of screaming protesters to get in. Once inside, she would be the only black girl in her entire school.New Orleans, Louisiana. 1960.
Library of Congress Fourteen-year-old Ronald Hayden stands outside of his home before heading to his first day of class. He and eleven other students will become the first African-Americans to attend an integrated school in their city.Clinton, Tennessee. 1956.
Getty Images A boy watches as crowds of segregationist demonstrators walk to Little Rock Central High to protest the first African-American students in a white school.Little Rock, Arkansas. 1957.
Wikimedia Commons The first African-American students to attend an integrated school in Clinton, Tennessee, walk to class together on their first day. These students would be known as the "Clinton 12."Clinton, Tennessee. 1956.
Getty Images Near Hattie Cotton Elementary School, a group of men make signs, getting ready to protest integrated schools.Nashville, Tennessee. 1957.
Getty Images Children on their way to school pass a line of segregationist protesters.New York City, New York. 1965.
Library of Congress Two African-American children ride to school on an integrated bus.Charlotte, North Carolina. 1973.
Library of Congress Soldiers march to a newly integrated school to keep the peace. Two African-American students have registered for class. They are expecting violence.Tuscaloosa, Alabama. 1963.
Library of Congress A member of the National Guard stands outside of Clinton High School as a crowd gathers, waiting for the Clinton 12 to try to enter the school.Clinton, Tennessee. 1956.
Wikimedia Commons The first African-American students at Little Rock Central High get out of their car and get ready to make their way up the school steps.Little Rock, Arkansas. 1957.
Wikimedia Commons Behind a police blockade, a young boy yells at two black girls who are starting their first day of school.Birmingham, Alabama. 1963
Getty Images The Clinton 12 make their way up the steps while a crowd looks on.Clinton, Tennessee. 1956.
Library of Congress The Arkansas National Guard, under orders from Governor Faubus, blocks the Little Rock Nine from entering their school.Little Rock, Arkansas. 1957.
Getty Images The Little Rock Nine are turned away from entering school on their first day.Little Rock, Arkansas. 1957.
Getty Images After being forced to allow integrated schools, Governor Faubus closes Central High altogether. If he can't keep African-American students out, he won't let anyone in.Little Rock, Arkansas. 1958.
Wikimedia Commons In other areas, the white students completely refuse to attend now that their schools have been integrated.Queens, New York. 1964.
Getty Images In Nashville, the response is even worse. Students look at the wreckage of Hattie Cotton School. Segregationists have bombed the school.Nashville, Tennessee. 1957.
Getty Images With the schools closed, students had to take their classes by watching the television, alone at home.Little Rock, Arkansas. 1958.
Wikimedia Commons With Central High closed, a boy takes studies in his pajamas by watching TV.Little Rock, Arkansas. 1958.
Wikimedia Commons Twenty days after being turned away, the Little Rock Nine try to get into school again. This time, the mayor of Little Rock and the federal government have sent 10,000 soldiers to make sure they get in.Little Rock, Arkansas. 1957.
Getty Images The National Guard escorts the Little Rock Nine into school. They have missed 20 days of class, but they will finally have the chance to learn in the same classes white students.Little Rock, Arkansas. 1957.
Wikimedia Commons Six-year-old Ruby Bridges is escorted to school by US Marshals. There are too many worries about the safety of the young girl for her to go to school without guards.New Orleans, Louisiana. 1960.
Wikimedia Commons A nervous young girl sits in the front row. She is the only black girl in her class.Tennessee. 1957.
Getty Images Lewis Cousins, the only black student at Maury High School, sits in class, while his entire class stares at him.Norfolk, Virginia. 1959.
Getty Images A gesture of friendship.Martha Ann Potts and Lisa Cary spot Lewis Cousins eating alone in the cafeteria. They ask if they can join him.
Norfolk, Virginia. 1959.
Getty Images Martha Ann Potts breaks down and cries, thinking about what Lewis Cousins is going through.Norfolk, Virginia. 1959.
Getty Images Lewis Cousins starts to make friends.Norfolk, Virginia. 1959.
Getty Images Two white girls join their black classmates for an activity at an integrated school.Washington, D.C. 1955.
Library of Congress Minnijean Brown, one of the Little Rock Nine, sings joyfully with her classmates.Little Rock, Arkansas. 1957.
Getty Images First-grade students in an integrated school learn together. The world is starting to change.Charlotte, North Carolina. 1973.
Library of Congress Ernest Green, one of the Little Rock Nine, becomes the first African-American to graduate from an integrated school in Arkansas. At his graduation, Martin Luther King Jr. is in attendance, watching Green receive his diploma.Little Rock, Arkansas. 1958.
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Children And Segregation: 38 Photos Of Little Minds And Big Hatred View GallerySome of the most dangerous battles of the civil rights movement weren’t fought by adults. They were instead fought by African-American children who walked into the first integrated schools in their communities.
They had to walk, sometimes alone, past mobs of people screaming in their faces. Then they had to spend hours sitting next to white students, many of whom had spent the morning listening to their parents teach them to hate.
The girl who first stepped onto this battlefield was Linda Brown, who was only in the third-grade when she changed the face of America in 1954. She had been forced to travel across town to an all-black school, where she was stuck with a sub-par education, purely because the white students at the school closest to her home refused to be educated with her in the building.
Brown, her parents, and the parents of some of her classmates wouldn’t stand for it. They filed a lawsuit, known today as Brown v. Board of Education, that would ultimately reach the Supreme Court and whose impact would ripple across the United States of America.
Because of Brown and 19 children like her, African-American students received the right to equal education.
But that didn’t mean that life would be easy from there on out. As the Supreme Court started forcing segregated American schools to accept black students, many whites pushed back. They staged massive protests against the kids who enrolled in these schools and did everything they could to scare them away.
In Little Rock, Arkansas, the first nine students to enroll in Little Rock Central High were stopped by the National Guard, put there by Governor Orval Faubus, with direct orders to keep these children out. In Clinton, Tennessee, 12 students had to face violent protests organized by white supremacists and even terrorists attacks on their school.
In Louisiana, six-year-old Ruby Bridges had to go to New Orleans' William Frantz Elementary School alone, as the only black student in the entire school. On her way to school, she walked past an angry mob that threw vitriol in her young face.
Going to school in the first integrated schools in America was a terrifying and sometimes life-threatening experience for these young children. But if it wasn't for their courage, many Americans wouldn’t have the rights they enjoy today.
To learn more about the history of U.S. civil rights following this looks at integrated schools, see these photos of segregation in America and the civil rights protests that changed the nation forever.
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