On May 17, 1954, in Brown v. Board of Education, the Supreme Court ruled that laws mandating racially segregated public school systems were unconstitutional. The Supreme Court later argued that federal courts should take steps to bring about the integration of segregated school systems "with all deliberate speed." In 1957, Governor Orval Faubus of Arkansas called on the National Guard to turn away nine African American students as they attempted to enter Central High School in Little Rock. President Eisenhower, who did not support the Brown decision, called out federal troops to protect the rights of the African American students to attend the school.
The events at Central High School in Little Rock showed that:
