The U.S. Supreme Court in 1954 ruled that it was unconstitutional to have separate schools for blacks and whites. By 1956, 75 percent of Kentucky school districts had announced desegregation plans.

When fall 1957 came only 9-year-old James Van Leer enrolled in the formerly all-white Waddill Street Elementary School in Madisonville. It was front-page news in the local newspaper, which was opposed to integration and described the opening of separate schools for whites and blacks as "marred by a single exception"—the enrollment of James.