The Federal Court's decision that racial segregation was unconstitutional was to be upheld at Little Rock Central High School in the 1957 school year. But the governor of Arkansas opposed the decree and had the first nine African-American students prevented from entering the school. In the course of the ensuing crisis, the »Little Rock Nine« returned to school. But this time they met an angry mob of white city dwellers. President Eisenhower intervened and sent thousands of National Guardsmen including paratroopers to Little Rock.

Burt Glinn photographed an extensive reportage in which he documented not only the conflicts and the intervention of the authorities, but also the everyday life of the antagonistic cultures. The »Little Rock Nine« finished the school year under federal protection.