Executive Order 10730

Executive Order 10730 was a directive issued by U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower in 1957. This order dispatched federal troops to Little Rock, Arkansas, to protect the civil rights of the Little Rock Nine. These nine African American students had enrolled in the previously all-white Little Rock Central High School following the Supreme Court's decision in Brown v. Board of Education that declared segregated public schooling unconstitutional. The presence of federal troops was necessary to counter the intense harassment and violence directed at the students by white individuals. Executive orders are a primary method of administrative action by the U.S. president, derived from congressional statutes or constitutional powers.12