The Little Rock Central High School Silver Dollar recognizes and pays tribute to the strength, determination and courage displayed by African-American high school students in the fall of 1957.

In the landmark 1954 decision of Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas, the United States Supreme Court declared racial segregation in public schools was, indeed, unconstitutional. The events in Little Rock, Arkansas in 1957, was an important step in the country’s quest for racial equality in public education.

The Secretary of the Treasury is authorized to mint up to 500,000 silver dollars in commemoration of the 50th anniversary of the desegregation events at Little Rock Central High School, in Little Rock, Arkansas during the 1957-1958 school year. So important was the successful integration of this school to the American Civil Rights movement that Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. personally attended the 1958 commencement for the school’s first African American graduate.