And the civil rights pioneer Jefferson Thomas has died at the age of sixty-seven. Thomas was one of the Little Rock Nine. The group of African American students attempted to desegregate the all-white Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas, after Arkansas Governor Orval Faubus defied the Supreme Court’s ruling on Brown v. Board of Education and ordered the National Guard to prevent them from attending classes. President Dwight Eisenhower responded by sending Army troops from the 101st Airborne to escort the nine students into the school.