Final answer:
President Eisenhower intervened in Little Rock by taking control of the Arkansas National Guard and sending the 101st Airborne Division to enforce integration at Central High School and to protect the Little Rock Nine.
Step-by-step explanation:
In response to the crisis of integration in Little Rock, Arkansas, President Dwight D. Eisenhower took decisive action. After Governor Orval Faubus leveraged the Arkansas National Guard to prevent the Little Rock Nine, a group of nine African American students, from attending Central High School, Eisenhower intervened. He placed the Arkansas National Guard under federal control and deployed the U.S. Army's 101st Airborne Division to not only escort the students into the high school but also to protect them throughout the school year. This firm stance ensured that federal law was enforced, despite attempts by the governor and other segregationists to resist integration.
This measure represented the first time since the Reconstruction era that federal troops were used to protect African Americans' rights in the South. The federal courts upheld the integration orders, which were based on the Supreme Court's decision in Brown v. Board of Education that declared racial segregation in public schools unconstitutional.
By federalizing the Arkansas National Guard and sending in the 101st Airborne, Eisenhower made clear the federal government's commitment to upholding the law and the Supreme Court's ruling against segregation.