Which public high school played a pivotal role in American judicial history, first by refusing to desegregate in 1957, in violation of Brown v. the Board of Education, then by teaching evolution in a public school science class in an eventual U.S. Supreme Court case in 1968?
Explanation
Answer: B - Little Rock Central High School made national headlines in 1957 when, three years after Brown v. the Board of Education ended “separate but equal” status in all public places, including schools, nine African-American students were denied enrollment. Governor Orval Faubus mobilized the Arkansas National Guard to blockade the nine students from entering the school, only to have President Eisenhower federalize the troops to get the students into the school. The ensuing “Crisis in Little Rock” became the most memorable attempt to defy the end of Jim Crow segregation, and ultimately led to Faubus canceling the 1958 school year in an attempt to keep desegregation from occurring. Less than 10 years later, a LR Central High biology teacher, Susan Epperson, agreed to become part of an ACLU attempt to overturn state laws that prohibited teaching evolution in public schools. Their notable first attempt in 1925 with John Scopes in Tennessee failed, and state laws banning evolution endured nationwide. Epperson's challenge of the state statute went to the U.S. Supreme Court, which overturned the state's verdict and ended the ban on the theory of evolution in public school classrooms.
