By 1961, school desegregation as articulated by Brown was unmistakably the law of the land, but court action alone could not accomplish desegregation. Little Rock set the precedent of federal support against the policy of interposition, making possible the efforts against those states still claiming their right to maintain segregation.

Brown lit a spark of hope in a generation of brave men and women who took the struggle for equal education into the previously all-white bastions of southern education. James Meredith's 1961 application to the University of Mississippi touched off a firestorm of protest and riots. This showdown between the federal government and states rights advocates forced President John Kennedy to intervene on behalf of Meredith and school desegregation. The setting for this dramatic story is the Lyceum building on the Ole Miss campus.