The city of Little Rock resisted integration despite Arkansas previously complying with Brown v. Board of Education. Students and activists supporting integration faced targeted violence, including being held under scalding water and hit with snowballs containing stones. Friends of activists were also harassed through prank calls and physical attacks. Activists themselves faced bombings, drive-by shootings, and cross burnings. The violence was driven by fears over increased competition from Black students, loss of white women, and beliefs that integration was part of a communist agenda, reflecting the Red Scare tensions of the time period.