Little Rock was thrust on the national stage in 1957 after Arkansas Governor Orval Faubus, a segregationist, prevented nine black students from attending Central High School. The Governor encouraged whites to flock to the high school to protest and called in the Arkansas National Guard to block their entry. On September 4, the students were turned away by the national guard. On September 20 a Federal Judge ruled the ban unconstitutional and on September 24, President Eisenhower ordered the 101st Airborne Division to safely escort the Little Rock Nine into school, and continued to escort them throughout the school year.

This local controversy played out live on the national stage as the first major national news story covered on live television. Across from the school sat a Mobil gas station with the telephone where reporters would call in their stories to the wire.