Following the 1954 Supreme Court ruling that school segregation is illegal, school systems in Arkansas took steps to comply. In Little Rock, in 1957, nine black teenagers volunteered to enroll at all-white Central High School, home to 2,000 students and renowned for its academics. Despite a progressive racial climate in Little Rock, the teenagers were met at Central by a hostile mob and by state National Guard troops ordered by the governor to bar their entry, an act that triggered a constitutional crisis. The dignity of the “Little Rock Nine” as they stood up for their rights woke the world to the civil rights movement in the United States."