775ensure admission of the black stu-
dents, Faubus ordered the closing
of both of Little Rock’s high
schools. In subsequent years, more
subtle means were found to dis-
courage the desegregation of
Little Rock schools.
In 1964, all of the schools in
Little Rock remained segregated
(see the accompanying map).
African Americans lived mostly in
the eastern section of Little Rock,
and their children attended all-
black elementary schools and an
all-black high school. White stu-
dents attended all-white schools,
including Central High.
By 1980, however, the schools
of Little Rock had become fully
desegregated (see the accompa-
nying map ). This map shows that
not only did all schools include
both white and black students,
but that the proportion of black
and white students varied little
among the schools. The balance
was achieved mostly by busing
black students into formerly white
schools. But the map also shows
that Little Rock was itself becom-
ing predominantly black. Busing
to achieve racial balance caused
many whites to leave Little Rock
and move to the mostly white
suburbs. By 1980 Central High,
which had been exclusively white
in 1957, was two-thirds black. The
same was true of most of the
other schools in Little Rock.
School officials worried that Little
Rock schools would soon be
nearly all black.
Similar patterns were evident
in the North, too. Supreme Court
rulings might change the law of the
land, but the attitudes of the people
were less malleable. Judicial opinions could change, too. In
2007, the Supreme Court struck down desegregation efforts
that used race as the sole factor in assigning pupils to schools.Arkan
sasRiverArkans
asRiverPercentage of black population
10 25 50 75School segregation and residential
patterns in Little Rock, Arkansas,
1964 and 1980High school
Elementary school100Percentage of
500 black students19801964Central HighCentral HighLittle RockLittle RockOklahoma 31 percent. Nearly 8 percent of black and white
children in Texas also attended school together. But overall,
compliance had been slow and incomplete.
The Struggle for School
Desegregation in Little Rock,
1964–1980
The most celebrated resistance to Brownhad occurred in
1957 when Arkansas Governor Orval Faubus ordered state
militia to prevent a handful of black students from being
admitted to all-white Central High. After President
Eisenhower sent the 101st Airborne Division to Little Rock to
Questions for Discussion
■Which southern states resisted desegregation for the
longest period?
■The maps of Little Rock show a shift from fully segre-
gated schools in 1964 to desegregated schools in 1980.
What demographic shift does a comparison of the two
maps indicate?