Little Rock High School, now Central High School National Historic Site, is a national emblem of the often violent struggle over school desegregation. Parting the Waters author Taylor Branch calls the Little Rock crisis "the most severe test of the Constitution since the Civil War."Three years after the Supreme Court's Brown v. Board of Education decision, which officially ended public-school segregation, a federal court ordered Little Rock to comply. On September 4, 1957, Governor Orval Faubus defied the court, calling in the Arkansas National Guard to prevent nine African American students--"The Little Rock Nine"(Ernest Green, Elizabeth Eckford, Jefferson Thomas, Dr. Terrence Roberts, Carlotta Walls Lanier, Minnijean Brown Trickey, Gloria Ray Karlmark, Thelma Mothershed-Wair, Melba Pattillo Beals )from entering the building.
Ten days later in a meeting with President Eisenhower, Faubus agreed to use the National Guard to protect the African American teenagers, but on returning to Little Rock, he dismissed the troops, leaving the African American students exposed to an angry white mob. Within hours, the jeering, brick-throwing mob had beaten several reporters and smashed many of the school's windows and doors. By noon, local police were forced to evacuate the nine students. Edward Bouchet (1852-1918) was the son of a former slave who had moved to New Haven, Connecticut. Only three schools there accepted Black students at the time, so Bouchet's educational opportunities were limited. However, he managed to get admitted to Yale and became the first African American to earn a PhD and the 6th American of any race to earn one in physics. Although segregation prevented him from attaining the kind of position he should have been able to get with his outstanding credentials (6th in his graduating class), he taught for 26 years at the Institute for Colored Youth, serving as an inspiration to generations of young African Americans.
Benjamin Oliver Davis, Sr., was the first African-American general for the US Army, after starting as a volunteer in the Spanish-American War. Following many years of service he became an adviser for the military on racial discrimination, pushing for full integration of the armed forces. WWII hero, founded Tuskegee Airmen earned a Bronze Star Medal and Distinguished Service Medal. A diplomat Ralph J. Bunche was an American political scientist, academic, and diplomat who received the 1950 Nobel Peace Prize for his late 1940s successful negotiation of an Arab-Israeli truce in Palestine. Bunche worked his way through the University of California at Los Angeles and graduated in 1927. He also earned graduate degrees in government and international relations at Harvard University and studied in England and South Africa.
A diplomat Ralph J. Bunche was an American political scientist, academic, and diplomat who received the 1950 Nobel Peace Prize for his late 1940s successful negotiation of an Arab-Israeli truce in Palestine. Bunche worked his way through the University of California at Los Angeles and graduated in 1927. He also earned graduate degrees in government and international relations at Harvard University and studied in England and South Africa. February was chosen as the month to observe Black history because it is the birth month of abolitionist and writer Frederick Douglass (Feb. 14)