Eisenhower Sends Federal Troops to Little Rock After Governor Uses National Guard Against Integration

On September 24, 1957, President Dwight Eisenhower invoked the Insurrection Act of 1807 and issued Executive Order 10730, federalizing the Arkansas National Guard and dispatching 1,000 paratroopers from the 101st Airborne Division to Little Rock, Arkansas. This dramatic federal intervention became necessary after Governor Orval Faubus deployed state National Guard troops to physically prevent nine African American students—the Little Rock Nine—from entering Central High School, in direct defiance of a federal court order to integrate. Faubus had claimed the troops were needed to preserve order and protect against violence, but evidence revealed he had coordinated with segregationists and the Ku Klux Klan to manufacture the crisis.

On September 2, 1957, the night before school was to start, Faubus announced he had called out the Arkansas National Guard to surround Central High School. When the students attempted to enter on September 4, they were blocked by armed soldiers while white mobs hurled racial slurs and threatened violence. Fifteen-year-old Elizabeth Eckford, separated from the group, faced the mob alone as photographers captured her dignified composure amid screaming white protesters. President Eisenhower, vacationing in Newport, Rhode Island, initially sought a negotiated settlement and met with Faubus on September 14, during which the governor indicated he would respect the desegregation order. However, once back in Little Rock, Faubus withdrew the National Guard on September 20 without providing any protection for the students.

On September 23, when the students entered through a side door, an unruly white mob of over 1,000 people received word and began rioting. Police had to evacuate the nine students for their safety. Mayor Woodrow Mann urgently requested federal assistance, forcing Eisenhower to act. In a televised address to the nation on September 24, Eisenhower stated that “mob rule cannot be allowed to override the decisions of the courts” and ordered federal troops to Little Rock. Under military escort, the Little Rock Nine finally attended their first full day of classes on September 25, 1957, but they endured a year of physical and verbal abuse from white students while protected by federal soldiers. The crisis exposed how state governors could weaponize law enforcement and military forces to obstruct federal court orders, demonstrating that even reluctant federal intervention could not overcome determined institutional resistance—Faubus went on to close all Little Rock public schools for the entire 1958-1959 academic year rather than continue integration, and was reelected governor four more times based on his segregationist stance.