Escorted by the 101st Airborne, the Little Rock Nine complete their first full day at Central High, with Bates as their advisor and spokesperson.
On September 25, 1957, the Little Rock Nine, escorted by soldiers of the federalized 101st Airborne Division, entered Little Rock Central High School and completed their first full day of classes as the first Black students in the school's history — a landmark moment in the enforcement of the Supreme Court's Brown v. Board of Education decision.
Daisy Bates had spent the preceding weeks personally shepherding the students through an unrelenting gauntlet of threats, mob violence, and political obstruction. As their chosen advisor and public spokesperson, she coordinated daily transportation, communicated with the press, liaised with federal officials, and provided emotional and strategic support to the teenagers and their families, who faced harassment both inside and outside the school for the remainder of the academic year.
This day marked a genuine first: the first time Black students attended the previously all-white Central High School, under the protection of federal troops rather than local or state authorities who had actively resisted integration. The image of soldiers escorting Black teenagers into an American public school became one of the most iconic and consequential images of the Civil Rights Movement, cementing federal supremacy over segregationist state policy.
Bates's continued guidance throughout the ensuing school year — including her home serving as a command center and safe haven — made her, in the words of many historians, the singular adult figure most responsible for the success and safety of the integration effort.