---
title: "Little Rock Nine — AP African American Studies Definition"
description: "The Little Rock Nine were nine Black students who integrated Central High in 1957 under federal troop protection, testing whether Brown v. Board would be enforced."
canonical: "https://fiveable.me/ap-african-american-studies/key-terms/little-rock-nine"
type: "key-term"
subject: "AP African American Studies"
unit: "Unit 4"
---

# Little Rock Nine — AP African American Studies Definition

## Definition

The Little Rock Nine were nine African American students selected by the NAACP to integrate Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas in 1957; their entry required federal troops after the governor used the National Guard to block them, making them the first major test of whether Brown v. Board would actually be enforced.

## What It Is

The Little Rock Nine were nine Black teenagers chosen to desegregate Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas in 1957, three years after *[Brown v. Board of Education](/ap-african-american-studies/key-terms/brown-v-board-of-education "fv-autolink")* declared [school segregation](/ap-african-american-studies/unit-4/7-black-womens-leadership-and-grassroots-organizing-in-the-civil-rights-movement/study-guide/LIHkK6aGrz3QjBUt "fv-autolink") unconstitutional. The NAACP deliberately selected students with strong academic records and the composure to withstand harassment, because everyone knew the integration attempt would be a legal and public test case, not just a school enrollment.

The resistance was exactly what EK 4.4.C describes. Arkansas Governor Orval Faubus deployed the National Guard to keep the students out, and white mobs surrounded the school. The photograph of Elizabeth Eckford walking alone through a screaming crowd, with Hazel Bryan shouting behind her, became one of the most widely circulated images of the era and pushed the crisis into national and international news. President Eisenhower eventually sent the 101st Airborne to escort the students into the building. That moment matters for [AP African American Studies](/ap-african-american-studies "fv-autolink") because it shows a Supreme Court ruling is just paper until someone enforces it. The Little Rock Nine forced the federal government to choose between *Brown* and a defiant state, and the federal government (reluctantly) chose *Brown*.

## Why It Matters

This term lives in **[Topic 4.4](/ap-african-american-studies/unit-4/4-discrimination-segregation-and-the-civil-rights-movement/study-guide/mzUdWDkWbWHxl2c6 "fv-autolink") (Discrimination, Segregation, and the Origins of the Civil Rights Movement)** in **[Unit 4](/ap-african-american-studies/unit-4 "fv-autolink"): Movements and Debates**. It directly supports learning objective **4.4.C**, which asks you to explain how different groups responded to school integration after *Brown v. Board of Education*. The Little Rock Nine are the clearest case study of that EK in action. You see state-level resistance (the governor using the National Guard to block integration), community resistance (mobs, harassment inside the school), and federal intervention (Eisenhower's troops). It also connects back to **4.4.B**, because the Nine's actions only make sense as an attempt to claim the equal protection rights *Brown* had just affirmed. If an exam question asks how integration actually played out on the ground after 1954, this is your go-to evidence.

## Connections

### [Brown v. Board of Education (Unit 4)](/ap-african-american-studies/key-terms/brown-v-board-of-education)

Brown supplied the legal right; the Little Rock Nine supplied the test of whether anyone would honor it. The 1957 crisis proved that a Supreme Court ruling without enforcement was just a promise, which is why federal troops became necessary.

### Fourteenth Amendment and the equal protection clause (Unit 4)

The Nine were claiming a right rooted in the [Fourteenth Amendment](/ap-african-american-studies/key-terms/fourteenth-amendment "fv-autolink")'s equal protection clause, the same Reconstruction-era guarantee that Brown used to overturn Plessy. Little Rock shows the long arc from a constitutional amendment in 1868 to students physically walking it into a school in 1957.

### Doll test and the Clarks (Unit 4)

Mamie and [Kenneth Clark](/ap-african-american-studies/key-terms/kenneth-clark "fv-autolink")'s doll test gave the Supreme Court evidence that segregation damaged Black children's self-esteem. The Little Rock Nine are the flip side of that research, real students absorbing the psychological cost of integration in real time as mobs screamed at them.

### [Montgomery Bus Boycott (Unit 4)](/ap-african-american-studies/key-terms/montgomery-bus-boycott)

Little Rock and Montgomery happened within two years of each other and together show the movement's two main pressure points, courts and [direct action](/ap-african-american-studies/unit-2/19-black-political-radical-resistance/study-guide/irfzuDC8oenkD4GE "fv-autolink"). Montgomery used mass economic protest; Little Rock used carefully selected individuals to force a legal showdown.

## On the AP Exam

Multiple-choice questions on this term tend to test cause and effect, not trivia. Expect stems asking which Supreme Court case influenced the Little Rock Nine (answer: *Brown v. Board*), why the NAACP specifically selected these nine students (strategic test case with students who could withstand pressure), and what the media coverage of Elizabeth Eckford and Hazel Bryan accomplished (it turned national and international opinion by making segregationist violence visible). You should also be ready to explain how the Little Rock crisis changed the movement's approach to desegregation after 1957, since it exposed how much resistance EK 4.4.C-style tactics could generate. No released FRQ has used the term verbatim, but the Little Rock Nine work as concrete evidence for any prompt about responses to *Brown*, federal versus state power, or the role of media images in the early Civil Rights Movement.

## Little Rock Nine vs Brown v. Board of Education

Brown v. Board (1954) is the Supreme Court decision that ruled school segregation unconstitutional. The Little Rock Nine (1957) are the students who tried to act on that decision. Don't write that the Little Rock Nine 'ended segregation' or that Brown 'integrated schools.' Brown changed the law; Little Rock tested whether the law would be enforced, and it took federal troops to make the answer yes.

## Key Takeaways

- The Little Rock Nine were nine Black students selected by the NAACP in 1957 to integrate Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas, as a deliberate test of the Brown v. Board decision.
- Governor Orval Faubus used the Arkansas National Guard to block the students, a textbook example of EK 4.4.C's point that state and local forces were sometimes used to prevent integration.
- President Eisenhower sent federal troops (the 101st Airborne) to escort the students, showing that enforcing Brown required direct federal intervention against a defiant state government.
- Media images, especially the photo of Elizabeth Eckford being harassed by Hazel Bryan, exposed segregationist violence to a national and international audience and built sympathy for the movement.
- Little Rock proved that the Brown ruling alone did not desegregate schools; resistance like school closures, white flight, and funding cuts kept de facto segregation alive for years.

## FAQs

### What was the Little Rock Nine and why are they important?

The Little Rock Nine were nine African American students who integrated Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas in 1957. They mattered because their entry required President Eisenhower to send federal troops, making them the first major enforcement test of Brown v. Board of Education.

### Did the Little Rock Nine end school segregation?

No. They integrated one school under armed protection, and resistance continued. Little Rock even closed its high schools the following year rather than stay integrated, and EK 4.4.C notes de facto segregation persisted nationwide through white flight, funding cuts, and school closures.

### How are the Little Rock Nine different from Brown v. Board of Education?

Brown v. Board (1954) was the Supreme Court ruling that declared school segregation unconstitutional under the Fourteenth Amendment's equal protection clause. The Little Rock Nine (1957) were the students who tested whether that ruling would actually be enforced on the ground.

### Why did the NAACP choose the Little Rock Nine specifically?

The NAACP deliberately selected students with strong grades and the emotional resilience to face daily harassment, because the integration of Central High was planned as a strategic test case, not a random enrollment. This selection strategy is a common AP multiple-choice angle.

### Why did Eisenhower send troops to Little Rock?

Governor Orval Faubus used the Arkansas National Guard to block the nine students, directly defying the Brown ruling. Eisenhower federalized the situation and sent the 101st Airborne in 1957 to escort the students into school, asserting federal authority over state resistance.

## Related Study Guides

- [4.4 Discrimination, Segregation, and the Origins of the Civil Rights Movement](/ap-african-american-studies/unit-4/4-discrimination-segregation-and-the-civil-rights-movement/study-guide/mzUdWDkWbWHxl2c6)

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