Central High School

Central High School is the high school attended by the Little Rock Nine in 1956, the first school in Arkansas to be integrated as a result of the U.S. Supreme Court ruling in the case of Brown vs. The Board of Education.

Central High School was located on Park Street between Fourteenth and Sixteenth Streets in a white neighborhood. Melba often thought that Central High School resembled a castle, full of grand possibilities and magic. The truth was completely different.

On the first day the Little Rock Nine attempted to enter Central High School, their way was block by a mob of thousands of angry citizens as well as the local police. One girl, Elizabeth Eckford, made it to the police line but was denied entry. The mob harassed and threatened to kill Elizabeth and chased Melba and Mother Lois down the street with a...