This was a group of black students admitted to Central High in Little Rock, Arkansas, following the Brown ruling. In the face of fierce opposition from the local white community, the students entered the school in the fall of 1957, protected by the 101st Airborne Division, which had been mobilized by President Eisenhower. The chaotic scenes, which were broadcast on television, captured the imagination of the country.

The first years at the Central High, as they were for black students across the South, proved extraordinarily difficult. The standards were higher at the white-majority school, and the black students faced daily abuse and ridicule. However, they persevered. Ernest Green, the first African-American student to graduate from Central High, went on to serve as Assistant Secretary of Housing and Urban Affairs under Jimmy Carter and received the Congressional Medal of Honor in 1999.