th the local black leadership to call for a boycott of Montgomery’s segregated bus system. Martin Luther King Jr. becomes leader of the 12- month boycott. In November of 1956, the U.S. Supreme Court rules the Montgomery’s segregated bus system is unconstitutional. Although the Brown ruling of 1954 was a unanimous decision, the American public’s reactions to it varied greatly. In the North, where segregated schooling was not a matter of public policy, blacks viewed the decision as a victory for equality. Most whites in Northern states felt that the decision had little meaning for them. In the South, however, many whites viewed the Court’s decision as an intrusion of the federal government into their way of life. Southerner’s pointed out that the North, too, was segregated. Black people in the South were profoundly affected by the court decision. Many felt for the first time that the government might be on their side, and that it might now be possible to throw off years of oppression. But a year passed before the Court delivered its instructions on just how school desegregation was to be implemented. When the Court’s directions in what has to be known as Brown II were summarized in the phrase “with all deliberate speed,” many black people were disappointed and felt that the government would not support desegregation.In 1957, the Little Rock School Board decides to admit nine black students to its Central High School. The Governor calls out the National Guard to prevent integration of Central High; the soldiers surround the high school and admit white only. An angry mob appears at the school to harass the black students. The local NAACP goes to court to support the nine students. President Eisenhower, reluctant to act first, intercedes, saying that the mob violence will not overrule court decisions. Eisenhower sends in the 101st Airborne Division. Under protection of the federal...
