Little Rock Central High was the focal point of the Little Rock Integration Crisis of 1957. Nine African-American students (known as the Little Rock Nine) were denied entrance to the school in defiance of the 1954 US Supreme Court ruling ordering integration of public schools. This provoked a showdown between the Governor of Arkansas Orval Faubus and President Dwight D. Eisenhower that gained international attention.
Little Rock Central High School National Historic Site was designated a unit of the National Park Service on 6 November 1998. It is located at the intersection of 14th and Park Streets in Little Rock, Arkansas.