ember 20, a judge ruled in favor of the students and prevented Governor Faubus fromusing the National Guard to prevent entry into the school. On Monday, September 23, thenine black students left for school together. An enormous mob outside was waiting forthem but they pressed on. Amidst racial slurs being shouted at them, death threats beingproposed, objects being thrown, and human barricaded blocking them, the students boldlymarched up to the doors of the school. On the outside, they remained stoic, not allowingany emotion to be shown for fear the mob would become even more violent. On theinside, however, Melba feared for her life. She was absolutely sure that her death wasimminent and quickly approaching, but the students managed to walk inside. PresidentEisenhower had sent in federal troops to make sure that the scene remained safe and thatthe students made it through the school day without harm. Men in military uniformescorted all of the students around the building. This made Melba feel even more differentand awkward than before, but she pressed on, and so did the other students. Even thoughthe guards were with the students, they still experienced constant hatred and acts of racialviolence. Insults were yells, black students were punched, lockers were destroyed, andfights broke out. Melba even had sticks of dynamite tossed her way, she was stabbed, anda white student intentionally sprayed acid into her eyes, nearly causing permanentblindness. As the year went by the insults decreased gradually, but the hatred stillremained. Eventually the troops left and the students had to fend for themselves.Minnijean Brown was expelled just before Christmas because she could not handle thehatred anymore and intentionally dumped a lunch tray on two white boys. She wasallowed to come back to the school for the next semester but then permanently expelledfor calling a white girl who provoked her "white trash". This gave the white students atthe scho...
