The Little Rock Nine—Ernest Green, Elizabeth Eckford, Jefferson Thomas, Terrence Roberts, Carlotta Walls LaNier, Minnijean Brown, Gloria Ray Karlmark, Thema Morthershed, and Melba Pattillo Beals—were black students who sought to attend Little Rock Central High School in the fall of 1957 as Southern states began confronting federally mandated integration after the Supreme Court’s 1954 Brown v. Board of Education decision declared segregated schools unconstitutional. On Sept. 4, 1957, the first day of school, 15-year-old Elizabeth Eckford, the first of the nine to arrive, was waved off the school grounds by Arkansas National Guardsmen with rifles raised. On Sept. 23, the nine entered the school for the first time despite verbal abuse and threats from the crowd outside, but when the mob realized they had gotten in, violence erupted and seven journalists were attacked. Fearing for the students’ safety, school officials dismissed them at lunchtime. By late September 1957, they were finally able to attend classes, but for the rest of the school year they endured abuse, threats, discrimination, and hazing from white peers and adults. By spring 1958, eight of the nine had successfully completed the school year.