From the archive: how the Guardian reported the Little Rock civil rights showdown in 1957

Soldiers from the 101st Airborne Division escort the Little Rock Nine students into the all-white Central High School in Little Rock, Ark. Photograph: U.S.Army/Courtesy of the National Archives

Testing a landmark 1954 US Supreme Court ruling that declared segregation in public schools unconstitutional, nine black students attempted to enrol at the Little Rock High School in Arkansas on 4 September 1957. Despite the Little Rock school board voting to integrate pupils, Governor Orval Faubus deployed the Arkansas National Guard to prevent the nine from entering the premises.

Related: The day nine young students shattered racial segregation in US schools

Manchester Guardian, 26 September 1957. Click to read the full article.

For three weeks a standoff continued. On 24 September, President Eisenhower issued a proclamation to the people of Little Rock to “cease and desist from interference with Federal court orders on school integration,” and the following day sent in federal troops to escort the Little Rock Nine into the school. On 25 September they started their first full day of classes.

The paper’s Alistair Cooke explained the importance of Eisenhower’s move.

Manchester Guardian, 26 Sept 1957.

Despite the nine being admitted to the school, they were still subjected to a year of physical and verbal abuse. On 4 October, the paper reported 75 white students walking out of the school when the black pupils entered, while one boy hung an straw effigy from a tree.

An unidentified white student slugs an effigy of a black student outside Central High School in Little Rock, 3 October 1957, as nearly 75 students of the school walked out to protest integration. Photograph: AP