This work looks at one of the most significant events in the struggle for black civil rights in America. In 1957 the Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas began integration. Resistance forced President Eisenhower to send federal troops to protect nine black students as they entered the school. It was some time earlier, in 1954, that the US Supreme Court ruled in Brown v. Board of Education that segregation was unconstitutional. This book contextualizes events at Little Rock with the unfolding struggle for black rights at local, state, and national levels between 1940 and 1970. It also focuses on the often omitted role played by local black activists in Arkansas. The volume argues that only by understanding the groundwork laid by black activists at the grassroots level in the 40s and 50s can we fully understand the significance of later protests. Moreover, it argues that local-level black activists and black organizations were not homogeneous, but differed significantly in their goals and strategies, thereby adding a multi-dimensional facet to a struggle that was more than just white against black.

Foreword by: John David Smith