In 1957, nine kids (The Little Rock Nine) were prevented from entering the very segregated school by the governor of Arkansas, Orval Faubus. Here's their story.
In 1954, The U.S. Supreme Court issued thee famous Brown v. Board of Education which made segregation unconstitutional in schools. After that, practically all the schools had to let blacks in. So the superintendent (Virgil Blossom) at Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas, made it so that during the 1958 school year, they would allow blacks which started in September of 1957.
Virgil Blossom
So, in 1957, the NAACP registered nine black students into Central High School; Ernest Green, Elizabeth Eckford, Jefferson Thomas, Terrence Roberts, Carlotta Walls LaNier, Minnijean Brown, Gloria Ray Karlmark, Thelma Mothershed, and Melba Beals. All having great attendence and outstanding grades.
On the kids' first day of school, Governer Faubus deployed the Arkansas National Guard to stop them from entering the school along with a crowd of people who believed in segregation. One of the nine, Elizabeth Eckford, recalls this day;
"they moved closer and closer". "Somebody started yelling, 'Lynch her! Lynch her!' I tried to see a friendly face somewhere in the crowd — someone who maybe could help. I looked into the face of an old womanand it seemed a kind face, but when I looked at her again, she spat onme."
The President, Dwight Eisenhower, later met with the governor and ordered him to not interfere with Supreme Court decisions.
The Mayor of Little Rock asked the president if he could have the 101st Airborne Division of the United States Army to help the nine students get into school safely. President Eisenhower allowed that and the 10,000 troops helped the as desired. And later, the Arkansas National Guard was taken out of Faubus's hands.
The kids went through rough times. Whites would call them names and spit on them. They were treated like zeros. The whites were only punished if an adult was there to witness it. Obviously, they wouldn't do it around adults. Melba had acid thrown in her eyes. Minnijean was told that no matter what, they couldn't fight back. She was getting taunted by a group of white boys and one day spilled her chili on them and got suspended for six days. Then two years later after more of this taunting, she was suspended for the rest of the year and ended up going to a school in New York where she later graduated.
Ernest Green was the first black to graduate from Central High School in Little Rock. He was one of the three who graduated.
Since the graduation, the Nine have had two tv shows based on them, been interviewed on The Oprah Winfrey Show where they were confronted by whites who had picked on them, the US Mint dedicated a coin to them, were invited to the inauguration of Barrack Obama, and very recently awarded with the Père Marquette Discovery Award. An award given by Marquette University, the university's highest honor. One that has been given to only Mother Teresa, Archbishop Desmond Tutu, Karl Rahner, and the Apollo 11 astronauts.
The Nine Today,
In 1958, he became the first black student to graduate from Central High School. He graduated from Michigan State University and served as Assistant Secretary of Housing andUrban Affairs under President Jimmy Carter. He currently isa managing partner and vice president of Lehman Brothers inWashington, D.C.
Elizabeth Eckford
The only one of the nine still living in Little Rock, Elizabeth made a career of the U.S. Army that included work as a journalist. In 1974, she returned to the home in whichshe grew up and is now a part-time social worker and motherof two sons.
Jefferson Thomas
He graduated from Central in 1960, following a year in which Little Rock's public high schools were ordered closed by the legislature to prevent desegregation. Today, he is anaccountant with the U.S. Department of Defense and lives inAnaheim, Calif.
Dr. Terrence Roberts
Following the historic year at Central, his family moved to Los Angeles where he completed high school. He earned a doctorate degree and teaches at the University of Californiaat Los Angeles and Antioc College. He also is a clinicalpsychologist.
Carlotta Walls Lanier
One of only three of the nine who eventually graduated from Central, she and Jefferson Thomas returned for their senior year in 1959. She graduated from Michigan StateUniversity and presently lives in Englewood, Colorado, whereshe is in real estate.
Minnijean Brown Trickey
She was expelled from Central High in February, 1958, after several incidents, including her dumping a bowl of chili on the boys in the school cafeteria. Shemoved with her husband to Canada during the Vietnam Warprotests of the 1960s and today is a writer and socialworker in Ontario. Winterstar Productions is presentlyfilming a documentary on her life.
Gloria Ray Karlmark
She graduated from Illinois Technical College and received a post-graduate degree in Stockholm, Sweden. She was a prolific computer science writer and at one timesuccessfully published magazines in 39 countries. Nowretired, she divides her time between homes in Amsterdam,The Netherlands, and Stockholm, where her husband's familylives.
Thelma Mothershed-Wair
She graduated from college, then made a career of teaching. She lives in Belleville, Illinois, where she is a volunteer in a program for abused women.
Melba Pattillo Beals
She is an author and former journalist for People magazine and NBC and lives in San Francisco.
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