Fire Damages Historic School in Little Rock
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LITTLE ROCK, Ark. — A fire Friday damaged the auditorium of Central High School, site of a historic civil rights showdown.
Students were evacuated from the school, and no injuries were reported. Officials said the cause of the fire wasn’t immediately known.
In 1957, Gov. Orval Faubus used the Arkansas National Guard to keep nine black students out of the school. President Dwight D. Eisenhower federalized the Guard, and the students briefly entered the school on Sept. 20 as whites rioted outside. Four days later, Eisenhower ordered troops from 101st Airborne Division to oversee the students’ entrance into the school.
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