A First Step toward school integration was a book written by Anna Holden. Anna Holden is an author who received her master's degree at the University of North Carolina. She was a research and information assistant before becoming the chairman of the Nashville CORE group. CORE stands for the Congress of Racial Equality. They were an African-American civil rights group that focused on non-violent ways to abolish racial discrimination in the United States. In her book, she talks about the events that happened during the fall semester of 1957, and how everyone reacted to the law being enforced. The author, Holden, wanted to show how severe this situation was by including the quote, "'I had just read the news about Hattie Cotton School when you called and I knew they weren't kidding when they talked about blowing up schools'" as the last line of the first paragraph. She is setting the tone for the rest of the page and shows how serious this situation is. A group called CORE went to the children's homes that were planning on integrating the schools. They encouraged them to continue and helped them get rid of any doubts. Many CORE members also served as escorts to the students for their first day of school. CORE tried to make these first graders as comfortable as possible and stand with them through a tough first day of school. When they arrived at the many different schools, reports of segregationists were there lined up protesting and throwing things at them. The author included some of what the signs said at the end of the third paragraph. The author wanted the audience to see how white people were responding to the integration plan and how many people opposed it at the time. Kasper, a Ku Klux Klan enthusiast, frequently held meetings to encourage the parents to boycott integration and spark issues. Kasper caused many issues and was the main leader in the fight against integration.