Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas, became desegregation’s first battleground. In 1957, Gov. Orval E. Faubus blocked nine black students from enrolling at all‐white Central High, forcing a confrontation between state and federal authorities. When Dwight Eisenhower sent the 101st Airborne into Little Rock, he didn’t know he was fighting the last great battle of his career. Here for the first time is the unlikely tale of how Ike became a civil right president.