September 12, 1958
On September 12, the Supreme Court ordered Little Rock, AR, to proceed with its integration plan, and on the 15th, under special legislation allowing him to close schools and to lease them to private school corporations, Governor Orval Faubus ordered the four public high schools in Little Rock, AR, to close. On September 16, Adolphine Fletcher Terry ’02 formed the Women’s Emergency Committee to Open Our Schools, with 48 original members.
After the committee’s overwhelming defeat on September 27 in a special election called for by Terry’s group, the Little Rock Schools remained closed for a year.