Nine African American students made history when they defied a governor
and integrated an Arkansas high school in 1957. It was the photo of a
young girl trying to enter the school being taunted, harassed and
threatened by an angry mob that grabbed the world's attention and kept
its disapproving gaze on Little Rock, Arkansas. In defiance of a federal
court order, Governor Orval Faubus called in the National Guard to
prevent the students from entering all white Central High School. The
plan had been for the students to meet and go to school as a group on
September 4, 1957. But one student didn't hear of the plan and tried to
enter the school alone. A chilling photo by newspaper photographer Will
Counts captured the sneering expression of a girl in the mob and made
history. Years later Counts snapped another photo, this one of the same
two girls, now grownup, reconciling in front of Central High School.