In this silent WSB newsfilm clip from September 23, 1957, police in Little Rock, Arkansas, hold back crowds protesting the integration by the "Little Rock Nine" of Central High School. At the beginning of the clip, a line of police face the milling white crowd. As the crowd surges forwards, the police take a few steps backwards before pushing back against the crowd. One officer waves a nightstick several times before the crowd begins to back up. Next, three to five police officers surround a struggling white man who falls to the ground; they carry the struggling man away, one holding each limb, while other officers keep the crowd back. Officers also chase a white man and put another white man in the back of a patrol car. One white female protester is helped into a waiting paddy wagon. Another woman led to the paddy wagon breaks free from the police holding her arms and runs to a stand of trees.

The Little Rock school board voted to integrate the school system in 1957; on September 4, 1957 Arkansas governor Orval Faubus ordered Arkansas National Guard troops to prevent nine African American students from attending Little Rock Central High School. Federal courts ordered Governor Faubus to remove the troops and permit the nine students to enter the school on September 23, 1957. However, because of the rioting that continued outside, the students were removed from the school after three hours. President Dwight D. Eisenhower ordered troops from the 101st Airborne Division to Little Rock to restore order and to protect the students. After a single year of integration, Governor Faubus closed the Little Rock public high schools to avoid further integration. The United States Supreme Court declared Faubus' action illegal and the public schools reopened August 1959.

Title supplied by cataloger.

The Civil Rights Digital Library received support from a National Leadership Grant for Libraries awarded to the University of Georgia by the Institute of Museum and Library Services for digital conversion and description of the WSB-TV Newsfilm Collection.

1 clip (about 2 min.): black-and-white, silent ; 16 mm.

Original found in the WSB-TV newsfilm collection.

WSB-TV newsfilm clip of police holding back white rioters protesting integration by the "Little Rock Nine" at Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas, 1957 September 23, WSB-TV newsfilm collection, reel 0748, 14:00/15:30, Walter J. Brown Media Archives and Peabody Awards Collection, The University of Georgia Libraries, Athens, Ga, as presented in the Digital Library of Georgia.

Forms part of: Civil Rights Digital Library.