Separate was not equal, ruled the U.S. Supreme Court in the landmark Brown v. Board of Education and segregated school districts and communities were unconstitutional. With “all deliberate speed,” the ordered, schools and public institutions needed to integrate African Americans. While most states complied with the order, Alabama, long the center of staunch segregationism, dragged their feet.

On this day, September 10, in 1963, to preempt the enrollment of a handful of African-American children in a Tuskegee high school, Alabama Governor George Wallace issued Executive Order No.9, which shut down the school to “preserve the peace and maintain domestic tranquility.”

To ensure his orders would be followed, Wallace mobilized the national guard, putting them on standby to quell any potential violence that may arise as a result. A howl of protests official followed, from Tuskegee residents as well as city officials, but the school remained shut. Wallace moved the national guard troops to Birmingham, where riots did occur, giving him the pretext needed to postpone integration there and everywhere across the state — ostensibly in the interests of state security. Wallace meanwhile boasted to the press about his accomplishments: “I want you to realize that there is not a single integrated school in the state of Alabama yet.”