S. Supreme Court ruled in Brown vs. Topeka Board of Education that segregated schools were unequal and unconstitutional. In September 1957, as a result of that ruling, nine African-American students enrolled at Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas. When the nine African American students arrived at Central High they were kept from entering the school. They had to be surrounded by more than 1,000 US paratroopers to protect them from segregationist whites. Each student had his or her own guard. The students entered Central High and were protected by their guard. White students that were attending Little Rock Central High harassed them. "Students spat at them, beat them, yelled insults, white mothers pulled their children out of school, even blacks told the nine to give up". (The Little Rock Nine: Integrating Central High, Pg. 1). Only one student out of the nine finished the school year. Three of the student moved away and the last three finished the school year. Ernest Green, one of the nine students graduated from Central High. " One of the girls, Minnie jean Brown, was suspended for dumping a bowl of chili on the head of one her persecutors and didn't finish out the school year. The other 8 did finish out the year. Ernest Green graduated that year. He was the first black to ever graduate from Central High. Three of the Little Rock Nine students moved away. The remaining five took correspondence courses from the University of Arkansas. When Faubus' actions were declared unconstitutional and the schools reopened in 1959, only two black students were assigned to Central--Jefferson Thompson and Carlotta Walls. They graduated in 1959". (The Little Rock Nine: Integrating Central High, Pg. 2).
The sit-in protest started in 1958. African American students conducted a protest at segregated lunch counters in city stores. They protested by sitting down at "white only" lunch counters refusing to leave until they were served.