When the Brown Vs. The Board of Education was passed in 1954, Charlotte schools seemed to stay segregated. They were segregated into two school districts, the black Charlotte City Schools and the white Mecklenberg County Schools. On September 4th, 1957 four students integrated schools for the first time in Charlotte history. The four students, Dorothy Counts, Gus Roberts, Girvaud Roberts, and Delores Maxine Huntley faced many challenges while trying to integrated the schools, some even went as far as Orval Faubus who surrounded Central High School and said it was off limit to both black and white people. He said that night on a T.V. interview that if African Americans tried to attempt to enter the high school "blood would run in the streets". Also John Kasper started a White Citizens Council and made a speech to three hundred white people saying that he wanted the white people to rise up against the school board.
This is Delores Maxine Huntley who was attending Alexander Graham Junior High School. She was scheduled to enter the previously all-white school but failed to show up when her 7th grade class begun. Everyday she had to be escorted home by a federal marshal because people would send her death threats.
This is Gus Roberts, Girvaud's brother, who was attending Central High School. He was 16 years old and he was met by a mob protesting him for attending Central High. When class is dismissed people called him names and someone yelled, "Go back to second ward where you came from." Out of all four students he was the only one who remained at a racially integrated school until graduation.
This is Dorothy Counts, who was entering Harding High School as this picture was taken. She was spat on, yelled at, and got things thrown at her but somehow managed to stay silent throughout all the harassment. The pictures of her entering the school were in local newspapers and papers around the world. These pictures sicked America and are now used as one of the symbols to represent the racism and prejudice that took place back then. The school administrators and police officers could not assure her safety, so she withdrew after only four days and moved in with a relative in Philadelphia.