The 1957 governor who resisted the integration of Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas, was Orval Faubus.
Faubus ordered the Arkansas National Guard to prevent nine Black students from entering Central High School in September 1957. He claimed that the deployment was needed to preserve order, but the troops effectively blocked the students from following the federal desegregation ruling.
President Dwight D. Eisenhower responded by federalizing the Arkansas National Guard and sending the 101st Airborne Division to Little Rock. The Little Rock Nine then entered the school under federal protection, though they faced harassment and violence during the school year.
The confrontation demonstrated that state officials could not legally nullify federal constitutional rights. Faubus remained politically powerful in Arkansas and was elected governor six times, but the Little Rock crisis made him a national symbol of resistance to school desegregation.