America has moved ahead because of the courage of everyday folks. Last
week I wrote about the courage of Iraq soldier Pete Hegseth and Forest
Lake Principal Steve Massey. This week the focus turns to nine high
school students, who, 50 years ago, shocked and stirred America. They
have become known as the "Little Rock Nine."
These young people, like others, agreed to help desegregate Little Rock's
Central High School in 1957. Thirty years earlier, in 1927, the American
Institute of Architects named Central High School, "The Most Beautiful
High School in America." But in September, 1957, thousands of people
gathered in front of the high school, making it a very ugly place. They
screamed and swore at the nine students who had the courage to try
integrating the all white high school (others had volunteered to join
them, but decided at the last moment not to participate).
I visited Little Rock last week, and walked up to the school, as, the nine
teenagers, Melba Pattillo, Elizabeth Eckford, Ernest Green, Gloria Ray,
Carlotta Walls, Terrence Roberts, Minnijean Brown, Jefferson Thomas, and
Thelma Mothershed had done.
But it was a beautiful spring day - green glass, purple schrubs, and a
very quiet scene. It was so different than those distant days, 50 years
ago, when walking into the school produced hatred, threats, and for some
of the reporters covering the story, beatings.
In some ways, things became worse after President Eisenhower sent federal
troops to protect the Little Rock Nine. According to materials at the
National Park Service exhibit across the street, the students encountered
enormous hostility and physical aggression from fellow students as they
walked to and attended classes inside the building.
A National Park Service building across the street tells the story - as
does a very well designed website, www.nps.gov/chsc. Teachers will find
extensive materials. So will families. There are pictures, a workbook,
some word games, and, testaments to courage, and questions about what WE
would do in such a situation.
As a youngster growing up in Wichita, Kansas, I remember the Little Rock
story well from nightly television stories. It took almost another decade
before the Wichita public high school I attended was desegregated.
Inspired in part by Little Rock, I tried to befriend the first Negro (as
we called them then) students. They were very frightened, and very brave.
Fortunately, because others had displayed so much courage, the Wichita
students faced much less (although quite real) antagonism when they
entered Wichita's Southeast High School.
The names of the Little Rock Nine are not well known. But their heroism
had a huge impact.
In some ways, the problems we face today are more complex. We do not
question whether to allow students of different races to attend the same
school.
But America still needs people willing to take an unpopular stand, and to
persist. History does not just help us look back. It can help us decide
how to live our lives.
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