Cooper v. Aaron, 358 U.S. 1 (1958), per Frankfurter J. p. 25 (United States)

Pursuant to a plan of gradual desegregation of races in public schools, Black children were ordered to be admitted to a previously all-white high school in Little Rock, Arkansas. Due to actions by the State legislature and governor opposing the desegregation and threats of mob violence, respondents were not able to attend school until troops were sent by the Federal Government for their protection. Nevertheless, respondents attended school for the remainder of the school year. However, due to the events, the District Court granted the prayer that desegregation be delayed for two and a half years. The Court of Appeals reversed. The Supreme Court upheld the Court of Appeals, holding that Arkansas officials were bound by federal court orders on desegregation. It was constitutionally impermissible to maintain law and order by depriving Black students of their equal rights under the law. The Supreme Court also said that local customs, however hardened by time, are not decreed in heaven. Habits and feelings they engender may be counteracted and moderated. Experience attests that such local habits and feelings will yield, though gradually, to law and education, and educational influences are exerted not only by explicit teaching. They vigorously flow from the fruitful exercise of the responsibility of those charged with political official power, and from the almost unconsciously transforming actualities of living under law.